kern river oil field production
All renewables must play a role in our long-term future, to be sure, and what remains of fossil fuels must help us get from here to there. Debate is raging in the region over new oil and gas developments, which prop up the local budget but raise environmental and health concerns. There is also the problem of the net energy. @Chris: Thanks! Until that is resolved, the idea of banning fossil fuel extraction does not seem realistic.”. Comment by Chris — June 26, 2011 @ 8:50 pm. The Kern River Oil Field is now recognized as the fifth largest in the US. For Kern, a county where nearly 20% live below the poverty line, expanding oil production means expanding the budget. Juan Flores, a community organizer for the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, has called the decision “inexcusable and shameful”. Normally one has several hundred vertical feet in which to make a gradual, horizontal turn in the wellbore. 5759 Hannah Ave., Bakersfield, CALIFORNIA 93308 +16507042022. It also requires producers to take steps to soften their impact on the environment, including paying into funds to help mitigate some of the negative impacts. generate new steam to enhance oil production and for other in-field uses. Assuming a standard 5.8 million Btu per barrel heating value of the oil (which is likely not the actual heating value of this field’s heavy oil), at 75,000 bpd of output, the produced oil would generate 435,000 million Btu per day. Thank you for your work. (Contrary to popular belief, it was mainly primeval algae and plants, not dinosaurs, that contributed the organic matter that later became oil.) Kern is California's most oil-rich county, producing nearly three-quarters of the crude that makes California one of the top five oil-producing states. An environmental impact assessment conducted by the county found many problems could not be avoided, including more issues with air and water quality and increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Community See All. Yielding a cumulative production of close to 2 barrels of oil by the end of 2006, it is the third largest oil field in California, after the Midway-Sunset Oil Field and the Wilmington Oil Field, and the … Wählen Sie aus erstklassigen Inhalten zum Thema Kern River Oil Field in höchster Qualität. Chevron’s slick, interactive 3D model of the field, based on nearly a century of accumulated data, shows nine layers of productivity comprising some 600 total feet of pay zone with about 60% oil saturation. “If the state were really going to get serious about stopping oil and gas production, they would have to essentially step in and tell counties like Kern that we have to phase this out,” Elkind says, adding that, so far, there have not been big attempts to get in the oil industry’s way. Book Review: What Would Nature Do? In so many ways, solar power will take us full-circle in the history of humanity’s uses of energy, as Thomas Edison identified long ago: “I’d put my money on solar energy…I hope we don’t have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”. Bakersfield-based oil producer Aera Energy LLC said the board's approval speaks to the company's commitment to producing oil responsibly. Ant Hill Oil Field I suppose you see a “cut-off” point somewhere down the road in availability (physically or economically) of fossil fuels to be directed towards photovoltaic production. After over 100 years of production, it is no surprise that 60% of Kern County’s oil output is produced using EOR methods. Oil & Gas. Built on the site of a former refinery, the eight-acre project boasts a 750 kW array of over 7,700 PV modules including six different makes of thin-film PV, plus one type of traditional crystalline silicon PV, and several different makes of racking systems and inverters. The area is very arid, so there is little vegetation. UNITED STATES OF … The. June 24, 2011. I would like to point out that although your net energy calculation could be right, the “net value” calculation for the company works a lot better for them since they have very inexpensive NG BTUs per dollar input whereas their output becomes very expensive Oil BTUs per dollar. It is adjacent to the much la… Today we are out at the Kern River Oil Field on the Northeast edge of Bakersfield California. The field peaked in 1985 at around 140 kbpd (thousand barrels per day). The Kern River field is also one of the longest-lived in the nation, having been in production for over 100 years. If my guess is correct, I would consider Kern River a useful (and given its contribution to US production, crucial) source of liquid fuels, but right on the edge of viability as a fuel source that can support a sustainable society.[i]. Mercedes Macias, a senior organizer with the Sierra Club who lives and works in Kern county, says advocates will begin pushing the state to crack down on the county. Seismic studies don’t work very well in such formations, so the reservoir characterization has been done by wireline—literally dropping a sensor down into a hole. Bakersfield is a good site for such testing, receiving temperatures over 100º F in the summer, freezing conditions in the winter, hard rain, large hailstones, high winds, and dust storms. Each year, the American Lung Association ranks cities in the region among the worst in the US for air quality and gives the county an F rating for both ozone and particle pollution. It had 9,183 active wells. Elkind, from the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, says he would like to see the state plan for a more interventionist approach in places like Kern county. Thus all of the water is recycled, and none is disposed of below the surface. Oil & Gas. This leads him to found the Baker Tool Company (modern BHI) in Coalinga in 1907 . I still expect the decline of mature fields to finally overwhelm new additions somewhere in the 2012-2013 time frame, and put the world on its inevitable and terminal slide down the back of Hubbert’s Curve. The decreasing water-oil ratio is strong evidence that the region acts as The debate has been going on for years, according to Ethan Elkind, a director at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Our renowned International Heavy Oil Center acts as a heavy oil training and technology transfer facility for employees and partners across the world. Combined Kern River and Midway-Sunset production makes California the top oil producing state. Pumpjacks operating at the Kern River oilfield in Bakersfield. By Chris Nelder, GetRealList However, the remaining water, approximately 58 acre-feet, represents what would normally be a costly disposal problem and potentially wasteful use of water. Meanwhile, the state has set some of the country’s most ambitious goals to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, including a 40% reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2030. Client's Challenge. There are much better photos in the Kern River Basin Tour video(3 minutes) taken by professional photographers the day we were there. have shown that if you want to support an advanced society, you need a net energy ratio closer to 10; three doesn’t cut it. Farmers voiced concerns about how the land, water, and air would be affected, while justice advocates highlighted how increased pollution would take the harshest toll on the most vulnerable. One of the challenges with Kern River crude is it’s unconventional—not light oil. The Kern River Oil Field had produced about 2.2 Bbbl of heavy oil by year-end 2014, one of the top five U.S. oil fields. Kern River Feed and Hay. Most of the state’s focus, though, has been on reducing transportation emissions and the demand for fossil fuels, which has increased since 2013. My review of Russell Gold’s “The Boom” for Nature, 5 finance models bringing clean power to the people, ‘Watts’ the mystery? The Chevron Corporation owns the massive field, consisting of 9,183 active wells. A county analysis done last year found that the oil and gas industry funded the county to the tune of almost $200m a year. Finden Sie perfekte Stock-Fotos zum Thema Kern River Oil Field sowie redaktionelle Newsbilder von Getty Images. Inspired by the Kern River discovery, "oil prospectors" fanned out across the San Joaquin Valley, and derricks began to pop up everywhere. I notice you don’t really make explicit reference to photovoltaic cells in your conclusion. The field is Kern Front, off the northwestern edge of Kern River field near Bakersfield in Kern County. “We are looking at the difference between $1.5m a year and $80m a year. Per-well oil production at Kern River is low—the average is 8 barrels of oil per well per day—but there are more than 9,000 production wells in operation in the field. After seeing the enormous effort it takes to produce oil from the Kern River field here in its twilight years, one wonders what the net energy of the project might be. 770 people like this. Kern County, CA oil & gas operators, recent drilling permits, producing wells, and well production information. It has produced over 2 billion barrels of oil, qualifying it as a “supergiant” field. Some are calling for the state to take a more interventionist approach to new development. As the majority of the world’s mature, high-quality, lighter oil fields continue their inexorable declines, heavy oil projects have managed to largely make up the loss, holding the world’s net output more or less steady (ex-“above-ground factors”). Additional data is provided by 660 dedicated observation wells that are scattered across the field. The South Belridge oilfield in Kern county is the fourth-largest oil field in California and one of the most productive in the US.