Oil production in Beverly Hills
As I’ve mentioned before, Southern California was the site of several major oil discoveries in the early 1900s, and was the main driving force behind the growth and economic success of the region. Although California’s oil production has decreased significantly over the years, many wells throughout the state are still pumping a combined 762,000 barrels of oil per day. Some of them are even located in the urban areas of Los Angeles County, near locations such as the Beverly Center mall and Beverly Hills High School. This is an interesting article about the hidden oil wells of Beverly Hills, which produced almost 1 million barrels of crude oil in 2007.
Britney Spears, Jay Z, Adam Sandler and Plains Exploration and Production Co. have one thing in common. They’ve all been sighted at Beverly Center, an eight- level mall near Beverly Hills, where celebrities shop for clothes and the oil company pumps crude.
The rising price of oil, which hit a record $142.99 a barrel today, has sent exploration companies scurrying to squeeze additional supplies from the fields underlying Los Angeles and its celebrity-rich neighbor.
California, the fourth-biggest U.S. producer of crude, behind Louisiana, Texas and Alaska, has received 16 percent more notices from owners planning to rework old wells this year, while plans to drill new ones are up 23 percent from 12 months ago, according to state Department of Conservation data.
“In the Middle East you might have 300 barrels of oil per cubic acre, but in the Los Angeles Basin you might have 4,000 barrels per cubic acre,” says Mike Edwards, vice president of Denver-based Venoco Inc., which has 24 active wells in the Beverly Hills area, including one alongside Beverly Hills High School. “In terms of the land that produces oil, the basin is very rich.”
Beverly Center’s kidney-bean shape was designed to accommodate drilling. It’s one of two sites within blocks of Beverly Hills, a city of about 35,000 where Houston-based Plains, the fourth-biggest producer in California, is expanding. The 26-year-old mall houses 160 retailers, including Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry. Pumping operations are hidden behind a wall between Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.
‘Weird Things’
“This is one of those weird things about Los Angeles,” says Jeff Brown, the mall’s general manager. `”There are oil wells all over the place. Drive down the street, you see hotel, beautiful house, oil well. Here, I don’t know if shoppers know there’s one or not. They probably don’t.”
