Despite the disclaimer following the chart on pp. 39 and 40 indicating that the "milestones" may reflect the bias of the sources from which they were collected, one cannot help but be impressed by the myopic vision of Oil & Gas Journal in compiling this list. Perhaps the editorial staff needs to expand their personal horizons in terms of professional contacts within the exploration industry.
The only mention of the California oil industry is the discovery of the McKittrick heavy oil field attributed to the year 1887. "This mine shaft in the McKittrick asphaltum mine, Kern County, was built in the1860s with redwood timbers. Oil prospectors were often former gold miners, so they tried to use hard-rock mining methods for extracting asphaltum and heavy oil. According to some reports, a single column of pure asphaltum 10 ft high and 6 ft in diameter was mined from a similar shaft in the McKittrick area."
McKittrick has a cumulative production of 283 million bbl of oil. Meanwhile completely ignored are the true "giant" oil fields of Midway-Sunset's 2.48 billion bbl of oil discovered in 1890, Coalinga 1.36 billion bbl of oil discovered in 1890, Kern River 1.67 billion bbl of oil discovered in 1899, South Belridge 1.15 billion bbl of oil discovered in 1911, Elk Hills 1.14 billion bbl of oil discovered in 1914, Long Beach 927 million bbl of oil discovered in 1918, and Huntington Beach 1.10 billion bbl of oil discovered in 1920.
In composite, these seven fields have yielded more than 9.8 billion bbl of oil, more than all of the Rocky Mountain states combined. The listing of the "giant" El Dorado field in Kansas, discovered in 1915, as an exploration milestone pales by comparison.
California is currently the fourth largest oil-producing state, and no doubt if a drilling moratorium had not been continued recently by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt on offshore federal leases would be second only to Alaska. In addition, California was the breeding ground for some of the most successful oil companies still active today including Chevron (Chevron Corp. started business in Los Angeles in 1879 as the Pacific Coast Oil Co).
In 1900, the thriving company was acquired by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust. The breakup of the trust in 1911 led to the formation of Standard Oil Co. of California. ARCO (founded in 1905) Richfield grew quickly into one of the West Coast's leading gasoline marketers with its own refineries and production properties. Gas wars and financial setbacks pushed Richfield into receivership in the early 1930s. The firm was reorganized in 1936 and once again captured an important share of the gasoline market. In its merger with Atlantic Refining Co. on Jan. 3, 1966, Richfield brought along its Alaskan leases and Prudhoe Bay exploration program, providing the new Atlantic Richfield Co. with a promising blend of exploration and producing properties.
Western Geophysical, ("The growth of Western Geophysical") is a classic American success story.
Western was founded by Henry Salvatori, an Italian immigrant imbued with the American spirit of entrepreneurship. Salvatori had participated in some of the early geophysical surveys for oil and gas after earning an electrical engineering degree from Pennsylvania University and a masters degree from Columbia University.
From a small building in Los Angeles, Salvatori and two of his employees built Western's first seismic data recording truck. Early growth was rapid, and in less than a year and a half, Western had 10 seismic crews at work in California, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, and Louisiana.
There are numerous other specious "milestones"; you should investigate the offshore drilling and directional drilling done for Rincon field, Santa Barbara Channel, for the first offshore oilfield and the first directional drilling effort. Frankly, you could have and should have done a better job of researching the "milestones" of exploration. The list you provided more closely resembles a composite of milestones and fond memories of your friends than a true rendering of exploration accomplishments and initial successes.
Kevin Corbett
New Ventures Manager
Anschutz Overseas Corp.
Denver