San Miguelito Oil Field

Total productive area of the field, projected to the surface, encompasses about 940 acres (3.8 km2), about one and a half square miles.

A cluster of seaside homes is on the ocean side of Highway 101 at Solimar Beach (marked as "Dulah" on the USGS topographic map of the area).

One of the field's pumpjacks is visible on the mountain side of the highway, at sea level, just north of the Solimar Beach exit; almost all the other oil wells are out of the line of sight from any public road, as are the other oilfield structures (tank farms, processing units, and others).

[3] Terrain on the hills is steep, and the unpaved access roads make numerous switchbacks.

Runoff from the oil field is west and southwest down ephemeral, seasonal drainages into the Pacific Ocean.

[6] In order to increase reservoir pressure, several waterflooding projects have been undertaken on the field, commencing in 1955.

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

The San Miguelito Oil Field in Ventura County, California. Other oil fields are shown in dark gray.
A part of the San Miguelito Field, from the north-northwest, viewed from the air.
Detail of the San Miguelito field, showing adjacent oil fields. Red dots are locations of active oil wells as of 2008.