333:, which operated as a gigantic trust until its breakup by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1911. According to an article published in the New York Times in 1905, Standard attempted to force its competitors out of business by artificially holding down the price of oil to as little as ten cents a barrel. The Coalinga independents responded by building a pipeline to San Francisco Bay, the construction of which was itself obstructed by continuous harassment from Standard, until the independents were finally successful by ruse: secretly building a real pipeline, while simultaneously seeming to work on a "dummy" pipeline in a more prominent location. During this time, the independent operators also accused the
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The
Coalinga Oil Field is a mature field, and closer to exhaustion than most of the other major fields in California. Its remaining reserves, at around 58,000,000 barrels (9,200,000 m), are less than 6 percent of its total original capacity; over 912 million barrels (145,000,000 m) of oil
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The
Coalinga Oil Field is the northernmost of a series of oil fields along anticlines extending along the western margin of the San Joaquin Valley, anticlines which parallel the San Andreas fault and have their origin in compression from associated tectonic processes. Other anticlinal oil fields in
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had extended its rail line into the town of
Coalinga. Around the "Oil City" area of the Coalinga Field, directly north of the modern-day town of Coalinga, several large gushers attracted attention, gushers still being a relatively new occurrence in the oil industry. The "Blue Goose" well, drilled
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Oil was known in the
Coalinga area long before the arrival of Europeans, as the Native Americans in the region used the tarry substance from natural seeps as lining for baskets, as well as for trade. The first attempt to drill for oil was in 1867, but success was limited both due to the difficulty
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such as water flooding, steam flooding, fire flooding, and polymer flooding were employed to increase the declining productivity of the field, and to reach and recover previously submarginal deposits. Even with such methods, the current oil output of the field has declined considerably from the
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Compared to many of the other
California oil fields, Coalinga is large and spread out, but contains a few areas of concentrated development around the richer pools. The field has a rough semicircular shape open to the southeast, approximately twelve miles long by six across, with the town of
59:. Discovered in the late 19th century, it became active around 1890, and is now the eighth-largest oil field in California, with reserves totaling approximately 58 million barrels (9,200,000 m), and over 1,600 active oil wells. The principal operators on the field, as of 2008, were
224:-Miocene age, and at depths of 500 to 3,500 feet (1,100 m); this area is currently active and subject to enhanced recovery methods such as steam flooding, fire flooding, and water flooding, methods developed in recent decades in order to extract previously submarginal deposits.
360:. Vol. I (1998), Vol. II (1992), Vol. III (1982). California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR). 1,472 pp. Coalinga Field information pp. 96–98. PDF file available on CD from www.consrv.ca.gov.
243:, and a relatively low sulfur content of 0.75%; oil from the Temblor pools on the Eastside is more variable, ranging from heavy to medium crude, having an API index of 12 to 30. Aera Energy, LLC sends its oil from the Coalinga field to its refinery in
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The eastern part of the
Coalinga field is a southeast-plunging anticline. Most of the oil in the Coalinga field comes from a large-scale geologic formation known as the Kregenhagan-Temblor petroleum system, a body of
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Coalinga at the southwestern limit of the semicircle, and the agricultural
Pleasant Valley inside. The oil field is mainly on the high ground around the valley, with the western part of the semicircle at the base of the
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The huge and productive
Temblor oil pools were discovered around 1900, and by 1910 the field was the most richly productive oil field in California, exceeding those in the Los Angeles Basin for the first time.
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Oil wells and steam apparatus along
Derrick Road in the western portion of the Coalinga field. The vertical loops are steam pipes; steam is pumped into the underground heavy oil deposits to help them flow more
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129:, which join together for the stretch through and north of Coalinga, cut across the Coalinga field and cross Anticline Ridge; along the route a passing traveler has a good view of oil field operations.
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As the climate in the region is semiarid to arid, most of the native vegetation is grassland and low scrub. Areas of particularly dense oil development are almost entirely denuded of vegetation.
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The operators of the
Coalinga field attained peak production in 1912 – 19,500,000 barrels (3,100,000 m) of oil – a value which was to decline steadily for the next several decades.
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In the early years of the field, competition was fierce between different oil companies, with a particularly sharp conflict between a group of independent oil producers and
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age, at depths of 700 to 4,600 feet (1,400 m), produced an enormous amount of oil in the early 20th century, and is now mostly exhausted. The other large pool is the
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erupted in Sept. 1909 at the "Silver Tip" well, producing 20,000 barrels a day, the biggest gusher in California until then. This was an event of such excitement that
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age, discovered in 1887 or 1888; however, it had little yield. On the east side of the field, along Anticline Ridge, the huge Temblor pool of
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closed down for a day so that its members could come by train to view it. This gusher would be dwarfed a year later by the colossal
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by the Home Oil Company to a depth 1,400 feet (430 m), erupted in 1898, spewing over 1,000 barrels per day (160 m/d).
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are closer to exhaustion, with about one percent and one-half of one percent of their original oil remaining, respectively.
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Drillers have found a total of four oil pools in the Coalinga field. The first to be discovered was the "Oil City" pool of
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early part of the 20th century: in 2006, the field's operators reported 5,700,000 barrels (910,000 m) of oil pumped.
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of transporting oil at the time, and the relative disinterest in petroleum prior to the era of motorized transport.
486:"Fighting Standard Oil in Coalinga Fields: Independents Find their Way Blocked at Every Turn." December 31, 1905
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473:. San Francisco: State of California Dept. of Natural Resources Division of Mines, Bulletin 118. p. 484.
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Coalinga Oil Field, in Geologic Formations and Economic Development of the Oil and Gas Fields of California
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Oil from the Etchegoin-Temblor pool on the westside is heavy crude, with a specific gravity of 11-18
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An idle oil well along Palmer Road, on Anticline Ridge in the eastern portion of Coalinga Oil Field.
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have been pumped from the field since the late 19th century. In the San Joaquin Valley, only the
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California Department of Conservation, Oil and Gas Statistics, Annual Report, December 31, 2006.
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California Department of Conservation, Oil and Gas Statistics, Annual Report, December 31, 2006
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folds, in which oil migrates upwards and is trapped beneath an impermeable layer, and
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The former BrightSource Energy solar plant, part of the Coalinga enhanced recovery
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The Coalinga Oil Field in Central California. Other oil fields are shown in gray.
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193:-age shales rich in organic sediments. Oil in the field is found in both
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of working in conjunction with Standard to put them out of business.
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fields. The southernmost, and largest in the series, is the
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Article in Rigzone describing the Coalinga area oil fields
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Buildings and structures in Fresno County, California
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in Anticline ridge continues to the southeast as the
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Oil field in Fresno County, California, United States
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California Oil and Gas Fields, Volumes I, II and III
459:; published by California Department of Oil and Gas
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524:100 Years of Oil, from the Bakersfield Californian
39:, in the United States. It surrounds the town of
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530:Approximate center of the field, in Google Maps
322:, by which California's largest oil field, the
432:Aera Energy description of Coalinga operations
259:Coalinga "gusher" at the Silver Tip well, 1909
526:: stories about San Joaquin Valley oilfields
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450:Oil and Gas Production History in California
422:DOGGR, California Oil and Gas Fields, p. 97
408:DOGGR, California Oil and Gas Fields, p. 96
298:In 1890 the first oil boom began, once the
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185:in the southwestern corner of the valley.
152:Coalinga Anticline Geologic Cross Section
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592:Geography of Fresno County, California
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498:from the Coalinga Chamber of Commerce
587:Geology of Fresno County, California
597:Geography of the San Joaquin Valley
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326:in Kern County, was first known.
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345:enhanced recovery technologies
234:Kettleman North Dome Oil Field
220:-Temblor on the west side, of
119:Kettleman North Dome Oil Field
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343:During the 1960s and 1970s,
165:the same series include the
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496:A Brief History of Coalinga
121:. California State routes
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316:Los Angeles Stock Exchange
276:Standard Oil of California
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65:Standard Oil of California
335:Southern Pacific Railroad
115:Guijarral Hills Oil Field
105:and the main part of the
37:Fresno County, California
577:Oil fields in California
469:Birkhauser, Max (1943).
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43:, about halfway between
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144:Coalinga Oil Field Map
136:Geology and operations
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519:at Wikimedia Commons
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230:Buena Vista Oil Field
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55:, at the foot of the
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582:Coalinga, California
553:36.2115°N 120.3578°W
268:Standard Oil Company
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203:stratigraphic traps
183:Midway-Sunset Field
558:36.2115; -120.3578
517:Coalinga Oil Field
437:2008-10-11 at the
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272:Coalinga Oil Field
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107:San Joaquin Valley
101:and Coalinga from
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29:Coalinga Oil Field
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515:Media related to
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103:Interstate 5
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57:Diablo Range
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544:120°21′28″W
310:A dramatic
45:Los Angeles
35:in western
31:is a large
571:Categories
541:36°12′41″N
457:Archive-It
352:References
312:oil gusher
270:building,
210:Cretaceous
199:anticlinal
167:Lost Hills
63:(formerly
218:Etchegoin
111:anticline
33:oil field
453:Archived
435:Archived
245:Martinez
222:Pliocene
197:such as
117:and the
41:Coalinga
280:Chevron
251:History
214:Miocene
109:. The
84:freely.
75:Setting
388:, p. 2
191:Eocene
179:Cymric
177:, and
370:Notes
278:(now
232:and
125:and
47:and
27:The
241:API
127:198
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413:^
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123:33
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