West Coast

ABSTRACT In the onshore area of California, 403 exploratory wells were drilled during 1980; 133 were successfully completed as producers. Five new gas fields and 4 new oil fields can be called ‘significant new discoveries’ found by exploratory drilling during 1980. In the onshore area of California, 1,757 development wells were drilled during 1980; 97% were successfully completed as producers. For the California offshore, just 7 exploratory well completions were reported for 1980; only 2 were successful. Seventytwo development wells were drilled; 65 of these (90%) were successful. For both the California onshore and offshore, the total exploratory footage drilled in 1980 was higher, but the total number of successful exploratory wells was down 9.4% from 1979. Notable industry activity in the California onshore area during 1980 included Shell’s operations and plans for properties acquired from Belridge Oil Company, the experimental recovery project being conducted by Barber Heavy Oil Process, Inc., in Kern River field, Gulf’s planned fire flood in Fruitvale field, and Getty’s mining program in McKittrick field. Geothermal activity during 1980 in California included the new pool discovery made by Occidental Geothermal Inc. in the Geysers and development programs carried out by operators in several proven field areas. In Oregon, development of the Mist gas field, discovered in 1979, continued through 1980. The field, located in Columbia County in the northwestern comer of the state was producing 13.1 mmcf gas/d by June 1980. Another major test is being drilled by Texaco in Crook County. Shell spudded an important deep wildcat on the Columbia Plateau in Washington during 1980. At last report, the well was below 11,740 ft and still being drilled.