Lost Hills Oil Field

The Lost Hills Oil Field is a large oil field in the Lost Hills Range, north of the town of Lost Hills in western Kern County, California, in the United States.ProductionWhile only the 18th-largest oil field in California in size, in total remaining reserves it ranks sixth, with the equivalent of over 110Moilbbl producible reserves still in the ground, according to the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources . Production at Lost Hills has been increasing steadily: as of the end of 2006, it was California's second fastest-growing oil field, exceeded only by the nearby Cymric Field.The Lost Hills field also contains considerable reserves of natural gas. In 1998, one of the field's gas wells was the site of a spectacular blowout, producing a pillar of fire which burned for 14 days and was visible more than 40mi away.SettingThe Lost Hills Field underlies a long, low range of southeast-to-northwest trending hills of the same name adjacent to the San Joaquin Valley. The hills rise scarcely more than 200ft above the San Joaquin Valley to the east, and only 100ft or less above the Antelope Plain to the west; in places they are almost flat. The hills and associated oil field are between Interstate 5 to the east and State Route 33 to the west, both of which parallel the field; Interstate 5 runs about 4mile away and Route 33 about 7mile. The California Aqueduct runs adjacent to the field boundary on the northeast, and the town of Lost Hills is on the other side of the aqueduct along California State Route 46, which passes through the field from east to west.