Kern Front Oil Field

Being within the ecological subsection of the California Central Valley known as the Hardpan Terraces, at an elevation of less than 1,000 feet (300 m), the predominant native vegetation is needlegrass.

The climate is hot and arid, with summertime temperatures routinely exceeding 100 °F (38 °C); the mean freeze-free period runs from about 250 to 300 days.

[2] The Kern Front Field contains two major producing units, the Etchegoin Formation and the Chanac, both sedimentary, but unconformably overlain.

Each is interbedded with silts and clays, and the sands have a high porosity, ranging from 25-33 percent, making them singularly suitable as petroleum reservoirs.

Basement rocks – the granitic complex representing the huge Sierra Nevada batholith, and probably of late Jurassic age – occur at a depth of approximately 7,000 feet (2,100 m).

[5] Oil from the field is heavy crude, with an API gravity averaging 14, and a sulfur content of 0.9 percent by weight.

Since this oil is heavy, it is viscous and flows easily only when assisted by steam injection or other enhanced recovery techniques.

Cyclic steam injection (the "huff and puff method" began in 1964, and production again rose, as the heavy oil flowed more freely to pumping wells.

Current operators include Bellaire, Vintage, E&B Natural Resource Management, West American Energy Corp., and a few others.