elk hilss from wikipedYes, Elk Hills looks like a terrible place to drill... (below from internet) someone better call OXY and warn them!
Discovered in 1911, and having a cumulative production of close to 1.3 billion barrels (210,000 dam
3) of oil at the end of 2006, it is the fifth-largest oil field in California, and the seventh-most productive field in the United States. Its estimated remaining reserves, as of the end of 2006, were around 107 million barrels (17,000 dam
3), and it had 2,387 active oil-producing wells. It is by an order of magnitude the largest natural gas-producing oil field in California, having produced over 2 trillion cubic feet (57 km
3) of gas since its discovery, and retaining over 700 billion cubic feet (20,000,000 dam
3) in reserve, making it even larger than the
Rio Vista Gas Field, the largest non-associated natural gas field in the state.
[1]
The principal operator on the field is Occidental of Elk Hills, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum. Largely as a consequence of their operations at Elk Hills, Occidental is the third-largest petroleum producer in California.