Oil exploration companies look to Beverly Hills

Tag : Foots Oil

Production is forecast "to stay flat" in 2008, he said. "Likeeverywhere else in the world, there's a lot of increased activityhere. As the price of oil rises, it's more economical to produce."
California has 3 billion recoverable barrels, according to theconservation department. That's equivalent to 4 percent of NorthAmerican proved oil reserves as measured by oil giant BP'sStatistical Review of World Energy 2008.
Almost 8 percent of the state's onshore output in 2007 came fromthe Los Angeles Basin, which Bopp described as the most denselypopulated oil-producing region of the world.
About 30,000 wells have been drilled since oil production began inthe Los Angeles basin more than 130 years ago, producing 8.6billion barrels from active wells, according to the department.
The 1,200-acre Beverly Hills field is part of the basin, last yearproducing almost 1 million barrels from 97 wells. The wells payroyalties of about one-eighth of revenue to property ownersincluding cities, local businesses and householders, Bopp said.
One production site has drawn a lawsuit by 12 former students atBeverly Hills High, who claim crude pumped from under athleticfields caused breast and thyroid cancers, Hodgkin's disease,non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and testicular and skin cancers.
The five defendants include Chevron, the state's leading producer,and Venoco, ranked 13th. Oil companies have been pumping at theschool since 1959.
Venoco, the site's current owner, produces about 400 barrels a dayfrom 15 wells, Edwards said.
A lower court dismissed the case in 2006, citing a lack of evidenceto link the illnesses to operations at the school. The plaintiffshave appealed.
Like the oil derrick at the high school, now obscured by a 175-foottower decorated with colorful tiles, other production sites in theBeverly Hills field are hidden from view.
Several miles from Beverly Center, at the foot of a street ofmillion-dollar homes, a six-story, windowless structure houses aPlains well.
"It's not the most lovely thing you have ever seen," says GeneCooper, a sculptor who lives several houses away.
The only hint of production at Los Angeles's Rancho Park municipalgolf course is noise coming from a row of shrubs along the fourthfairway.
"The oil well here is out of the way, there are no homes nearby andthey've made an effort to hide it," said Andy Dierken, a golfer inthe midst of a game with three cigar-chomping friends. "It doesn'tsmell, and from the green, you can't hear it."
In addition, he said as the foursome drove off in their carts, "Weneed the oil."