Current Abstract

October 8th, 2024 Meeting Abstract

“Exploration History and Remaining Potential of the Los Angeles Basin: 1880-1976“

Presented by: Dan Steward

Abstract:

Over a 96-year exploration period within the Los Angeles Basin (LAB), 7 exploration trends emerged with the discovery of 66 oil fields with 142 new pool discoveries that have a combined cumulative production of 9.03 billion barrels of oil as of 2020.  The trends, in order of their discovery: Whittier Fault Zone-Fullerton Embayment (1880), Santa Monica Thrust (1890), Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone (1920), Schist Ridge (1929), Wilmington Graben (1932), Capistrano Embayment (1959), Palos Verdes Fault Zone (1976).  Leading the group of trends in recovered resource is the Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone with 3.242 billion bbls.; 2nd is the Wilmington Graben, dominated by the Wilmington field, with 2.981 billion bbls.; 3rd is the Whittier Fault Zone/Fullerton Embayment with 1.997 billion barrels.  Five oil fields among the group of 66 account for 67% of the cumulative production.  Over 1 billion bbls. were discovered simply by drilling on or near oil seeps in the LAB’s first 9 discoveries, 1880 – 1909.

Despite the success of locating and successfully discovering and developing the rich oil resource of the LAB, its full potential is far from realized. Several trends, particularly those with potential extensions offshore, are truncated in terms of potential remaining resource.  Using an analogy from the deepwater Gulf of Mexico amplitude trend, field sizes typically decline over time as the imagination and technological resources are exhausted.  To cite one example, the offshore Beta oil field, with over 1 billion bbls. of original oil in place, and perhaps 200 million bbls. recoverable, is the solitary discovery in the Palos Verdes Fault Zone trend – a feature that is tens of miles long and extends through two LAB sub-basins.  A “what-if” scenario will be considered for the LAB as regards future assessment and the potential for additional discoveries.

Biography:

Taft native Dan Steward has served as the President of the Los Angeles Basin Geological Society since September 2022 and was most recently heavily engaged in the Pacific Section’s 100-Year Celebration in the Whittier and Brea-Olinda talks and fieldtrip, respectively. Dan’s most recent industry role was as Amplify Energy’s VP of Operations, covering the Beta Offshore production asset in San Pedro Bay.  Initial career experience at Arco Exploration followed by a full-time role at Chevron brought a mix of exploration and exploitation work on the Bakersfield Arch, offshore Point Arguello, Kern River, and Midway-Sunset, among others. In late 2002 Dan and his family relocated to Mandeville, Louisiana to work the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (DWGOM) exploration with Chevron in New Orleans.  Dan joined Noble Energy in Houston in early 2006 with a focus on subsalt prospect generation, Federal OCS lease sales and strategy.  Later assignments involved managing exploration in offshore Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.  In 2013, Lukoil Overseas dragged Dan away from Noble to direct their west African margin exploration in Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, the Black Sea, in addition to various new ventures evaluations.  A 2018 EMBA from Rice University led Dan to start up Iron Horse Energy LLC with a business school colleague, focused on California heavy oil assets or “anywhere PDP”.  Since leaving Amplify in 2023, Dan has focused on high-quality catch-up time with family and friends, local travel, family projects, lots of mountain biking, and numerous geologic-related side projects, plus additional involvement with the Pacific Section AAPG as President-Elect.