The Huntington Beach Oil Field is part of rich pools of

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

found along the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

in the early 1920s stretching from

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to Santa Barbara, California.

History

On May 24, 1920, the first Huntington Beach well, the Huntington A-1 , was brought in as a producing well. By October 1921, the field had 59 producing wells. Even with 16 of those 59 wells being idle, the field produced per day, with each well producing from 50 to 200 barrels daily. The conflict of coastal oil drilling with beachfront recreation and tourism has been a central theme in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

politics. The discovery of oil was followed by a real estate boom in the surrounding communities. For example, as the Huntington Beach Oil Field expanded, the homes in that area that stood in the path of drawing oil from the ground were physically relocated north in 1921-1922 to lots in

Midway City, California Midway City is a census-designated place in the United States that forms part of the county land controlled by Orange County, California. The only area in Orange County that incorporates its chamber of commerce and homeowners association to act ...

, which "started Midway City". In addition, the discovery led to the development of the oceanfront community of

Sunset Beach, California Sunset Beach is a Huntington Beach beachfront community in Orange County, California. It was established on September 8, 1904 and developed as a result of the 1920 discovery of oil in the Huntington Beach Oil Field. The census-designated place of ...

, which was established in 1905.

Current operations

As of 2000, Huntington Beach had produced over a billion barrels of oil and 845 billion cf of natural gas. In 2013, the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

estimated that the Huntington Beach Oil Field could produce an additional 117 to 866 million barrels of oil, with their best estimate being 370 million barrels. It is unlikely that all of this oil could be produced, given the location. Current value of this estimate of potential oil, if it was produced, would be about $37 billion, at $100/bbl.Remaining Recoverable Petroleum in Ten Giant Oil Fields of the Los Angeles Basin, Southern California
USGS, revised 2-2013. California Resources Corporation currently operates the Huntington Beach Oil Field in

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

.California Resources Corporation 2017 Annual Report
Pages 16-25. Huntington Beach, 1926

References

{{Huntington Beach, California Geography of Orange County, California Oil fields in California