Geology of the Honor Rancho Oil Field, Los Angeles County: ABSTRACT

Abstract

The Honor Rancho field was discovered by The Texas Company's Honor Rancho (NCT-1) well No. 1 which was completed on August 22, 1950, flowing 1,414 barrels per day, 35.3° clean oil from the interval 5,302-5,340 feet. Six wells have subsequently been drilled, of which one, the Honor Rancho (NCT-1) No. 4, is a dry hole. The section penetrated consists of approximately 4,000 feet of Pleisto-Pliocene Saugus and Pico, 700 feet of Pliocene Repetto, and 5,000 feet of upper Miocene shale, sand, and conglomerate within the Delmontian and Mohnian stages. The discovery well was drilled on the assumption that the west-plunging anticlinal nose mapped at the surface in the area west of Castaic Creek would rise eastward across the Rancho to the San Gabriel fault and be closed by this fault. Two productive horizons have been discovered: the upper Rancho zone; and the lower, Wayside zone. In the dry hole, Honor Rancho (NCT-1) No. 4, which was drilled to 10,086 feet, deeper sands and conglomerates were found non-productive. The lithology of the oil zones varies from very fine thin-bedded sand to massive conglomerate. The fine sand, generally, is highly permeable while the conglomerate tends to be tight. The thickness of oil sand interval varies considerably from well to well and the electric logs are difficult to correlate. The field appears to be complexly faulted with, possibly, both normal and reverse faults present. In view of the variable lithology and the complex faulting, the writers believe it is impossible to predict the extent of this field at the present time. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2633------------