Petroleum 



323 



Figure 246. Texas tower type 

 of offshore drilling platform 

 being used off Huntington 

 Beach in 1957. Courtesy of 

 Howard C. Pyle, Monterey Oil 

 Company. 



eleven times annual production, and those 

 for the whole United States about twelve 

 times annual production. Figures for off- 

 shore reserves total at least 150 million 

 barrels (Hortig, 1958), but doubtlessly the 

 ultimate reserves are enormously greater. 

 Any estimate of them can be little more 

 than a guess because to date all production 

 has been only from extensions of known 

 fields on land, although the artificial island 

 off Seal Beach is producing from a distant 

 extension of the Wilmington oil field. Al- 

 most certainly there exist oil accumulations 

 on the outer part of the shelves that are un- 

 related to structures present on the adjacent 

 land. 



Inspection of Table 3 1 and Figure 248 

 shows that most of the offshore production 

 has been from only two fields, Wilmington 

 and Huntington Beach. Peak production 

 for Wilmington was reached in 1951, for 

 Elwood in 1930, and for Rincon in 1946. 

 Peak production has probably not yet been 

 reached at Huntington Beach. Maximum 

 production to date was reached in 1957 for 

 each of several new fields: Alamitos, Seal 



Beach, Montalvo, Newport Beach, and Re- 

 dondo Beach; but peaks for all are probably 

 several or many years hence. Although 

 early fame touched Summerland, Coal Oil 

 Point, and Capitan, their productions have 

 been relatively negligible. 



Table 31 



Cumulative Production of Petroleum 

 FROM Offshore — to January 1, 1958 



Field 



First Reported Millions of 



Date of Off- Barrels of 



shore Production Crude Oil 



