Rincon Oil Field

Climate in the area is Mediterranean, with cool rainy winters and mild summers, the heat being moderated by morning fog and low clouds.

A single massive 268,000 barrel tank, the feature of the plant visible at the greatest distance, stores oil from the Rincon field prior to shipping it through the pipeline.

This plank causeway is too narrow for regular vehicular traffic, but contains pipelines to carry oilfield liquids – oil and produced water – as well as natural gas back to the shore, where they are processed at the La Conchita Oil and Gas Processing Facility.

[3] All of the petroleum-bearing horizons in the Rincon field are in the Pico Formation, a thick sedimentary unit deposited in a shallow marine environment during the Pliocene, 5.3 to 1.6 million years ago.

This formation contains sandstones, siltstones, and conglomerates, sufficiently porous under the anticline to hold abundant quantities of oil.

3,[6] to a depth of 2,557 feet into the "Shallow" and "Top" zones of the Pliocene-age Pico Formation, encountering a 1,500 psi reservoir pressure.

[9] Peak production from the entire field was in 1972, when the various producers reported over 4.6 million barrels for the year.

In 1993, Vintage Petroleum acquired both the Rincon and adjacent San Miguelito oil fields from Mobil, Conoco, and Santa Fe Energy.