Special development problems of Long Beach unit, Wilmington field
The Long Beach unit of California's Wilmington field presents some special challenges arising out of the characteristics, history, and operational constraints of the unit. A base map shows the areas in the Long Beach unit.The Wilmington field is a NW.-SE. trending anticline in the Los Angeles Basin and is about 10 miles long and 3 miles wide. It is broken into a series of fault blocks by a series of transversal major faults which--together with numerous additional minor faults--constituting a complex faulting system. The field contains about 70 producing horizons of Pliocene and Miocene age. Oil was also found recently in the fractured surface on the basement, which is the Franciscan schist of Jurassic age. A clean separation of the oil-bearing sands by geologic age and characteristics is not possible. Wells are drilled directionally from several sites on Pier J in the Long Beach harbor and from 4 man-made islands of 8 acres each. Some boreholes deviate from the vertical by more than 70$. The areal extent of the oil accumulation shows large differences between various zones and subzones and between fault blocks. Shifting of the axial plane between fault blocks and with depth, variations in petrophysical characteristics, and large differences between the water tables indicate a very complex depositional post depositional history.
- Research Organization:
- California State Land Comm
- OSTI ID:
- 6667119
- Journal Information:
- Oil Gas J.; (United States), Vol. 67:30
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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