Kern River Oil Field - Operations and Estimated Reserves

Operations and Estimated Reserves

The principal operator of the Kern River Field is Chevron, which has gradually acquired the field through buyout and merger with the various other operators, including Tidewater, one of the original developers of the enhanced production technologies that revived the field in the 1960s; Getty Oil; and Texaco.

While most of the oil has been removed from the field, enhanced production technologies such as steam flooding have made it possible to extract much of the oil once considered unfeasible to recover. The recent high price of oil also makes recovery of previously marginal pools attractive. Total estimated reserves of the Kern River field at the end of 2006 totaled more than 475 million barrels (75,500,000 m3), which represented approximately 15% of California's 3.2-billion-barrel (510,000,000 m3) reserve.

Wastewater from the field was once allowed to drain directly into the streams dissecting the region, and thence into the Kern River. This practice ended in the 1960s and 1970s when more stringent environmental regulations were enacted both on federal and state levels. Wastewater now is treated in facilities specifically built for this purpose, and after the treatment, is used to irrigate crops in the San Joaquin Valley.