Discovered in 1964, and reaching peak production in 1969, it has produced over 106 million barrels of oil in its lifetime, and retains approximately 2 million barrels in reserve recoverable with present technology, according to the California State Department of Natural Resources.

[1] Currently the field is produced from three drilling platforms four to five miles (8 km) offshore, within Federal waters outside of the tidelands zone.

Oil and gas from Platform Henry moves via undersea pipeline to DCOR's Rincon Plant processing facility, and oil and gas from Houchin and Hogan runs to PACOPS's La Conchita Plant, about two miles (3 km) northwest of the Rincon Facility, near the town of La Conchita.

Rather than being one continuous oil reservoir, the oil is trapped in a series of narrow stratigraphic traps, with the more porous, oil-bearing sections of the sandstone interbedded with impermeable units, rather like a long layer cake slightly warped up along its long axis.

[7] Overall, 29 separate productive units have been isolated within the field, as of a 1997 reservoir modeling exercise carried out by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Pacific Operators Offshore.

In addition to the platforms, the company acquired the oil and gas processing plant at La Conchita, on the mountain side of the U.S. Highway 101 freeway where it runs along the sea.

The federal government awarded the lease to Sunray DX on April 1, 1968, but their successor (Sun Oil Co.) did not install Platform Henry until August 31, 1979.