Cooperative Development Plan for Buena Vista Hills Oil and Gas Field, Kern County, California

Abstract

The possibility of deeper production in the Buena Vista Hills was firstconsidered in 1933. At that time, however, the heavy state curtailment programserved to deter any operator from drilling test wells, which, if successful, might upset the proration schedules. Because most of the acreage was held byseveral major operators and the remainder by substantial independents, theadoption of a plan of cooperative development was considered desirable. Such aplan was formulated for the development of any deeper oil and gas horizons thatmay be found to exist. This plan, which was signed by the Secretaries of theNavy and of the Interior on behalf of the United States on July 9, 1936, is noweffective for the development of lands within the area shown on Fig. 1. Unlikemost unit plans, the present cooperative development plan permits each operatorto drill and produce his own wells. For the purpose of this plan the Buena Vista Hills field is divided into twopools. The present production is classed as the" old pool," while anyfuture production below a certain marker which roughly coincides with thebottom of the Santa Margarita formation is included in the" pool" towhich the provisions particularly apply. Naval Petroleum Reserve No.2 lies within the area and constitutes the majorportion of the Federal leases subject to the plan. There are 39,040 acres and27 operators within the area. Twenty-six operators controlling 99.5 per cent ofthe acreage have signed the agreement. Geology of the Buena Vista Hills The Buena Vista Hills consist of a low range in the southern portion of the SanJoaquin Valley, and are roughly parallel to the adjacent Temblor range to thesouth. The Elk Hills oil field parallels the Buena Vista Hills a? few miles tothe north.