California oil and gas industry
Oil became a major California industry in the 20th century with the discovery on new fields around Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley, and the dramatic increase in demand for gasoline to fuel automobiles and trucks.
[2] California drilling operations and oil production are concentrated primarily in Kern County, San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles basin.
In Southern California, large seeps were found in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Kern, and Los Angeles Counties.
In 1864, Yale chemistry professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr., a leading expert, examined the oil seepages in Ventura County, and wrote reports that indicated excellent commercial possibilities.
As early as 1856 a company began working the tar pits at La Brea Ranch, near Los Angeles, distilling some oil.
In 1866 the first oil refinery in California was built near McKittrick Tar Pits in Kern County to process kerosene and asphalt.
In the 20th century the primary use is in road construction, where it is used as the glue or binder mixed with aggregate particles or gravel to create asphalt concrete.
[11] The Los Angeles City Oil Field was discovered in 1890, and made famous by Edward L. Doheny's successful well in 1892.
[9] In 1903, California became the leading oil-producing state in the US, and traded the number one position back-and forth with Oklahoma through the year 1930.
However, the 1899 discovery of "black gold" in a shallow hand-dug oil well on the west bank of the Kern River changed all that.
The Kern River discovery started an oil boom, and a forest of wooden derricks sprang up overnight on the flood plain just north of Bakersfield, a sleepy farm town known to most as "Bakers Swamp".
Inspired by the Kern River discovery, oil prospectors fanned out across the San Joaquin Valley, and derricks began to pop up everywhere.
Many discoveries followed, and a string of spectacular gushers at Coalinga, McKittrick and Midway-Sunset fields kept the valley in the oil news.
[17] Widely distributed in sedimentary basins of southern California is the Monterey shale, thought by some to contain more than 400 billion barrels of oil in place.
[18] Over some large areas, California's geologic layers are complexly folded, making horizontal drilling difficult.
As of 2013, the Monterey shale has resisted attempts to obtain economic production of oil through hydraulic fracturing, fracking, which involves injecting water, sand, and chemicals into the shale under high pressure, to crack the rock and allow the oil and gas to flow.
By the time significant amounts of natural gas became available electricity was taking over the task of lighting.
In 1929, PG&E constructed a 300-mile pipeline from the Kettleman oil field to bring natural gas to the San Francisco Bay area.
[22] The transition required the adjustment of burners and airflow valves on 1.75 million appliances and gas lamps.
In 1951, PG&E completed a 502-mile (808 km) gas main which connected with the El Paso network at the state line.
; about 8.6% is used for commercial building and water heating, 14.5% is used in industrial use and some of the rest has varied uses such as fueling bus fleets and UPS trucks.
The emergence of renewable and often highly variable resources for electricity generation such as solar and wind power has led to higher natural gas use in generation due to its lower cost, versatility, and high reliability as a source of electricity generation—so far.
more than 100,000 miles of intrastate pipelines take the natural gas to customers for immediate consumption or to underground storage facilities for later use.
The early California oil industry has served as a setting for several notable fictional novels and films:
