Painless Drilling : Camouflaged, Neighbor-Friendly Complex Is Quietly Consolidating Huntington Beach Oil Operations

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  For the past year, a curious-looking new tower has loomed over the city.

To some, the 134-foot angular tower with an American flag on top looks like an avant-garde sculpture. “The other day a real estate person called me, wanting to know if it’s a church that’s being built here,” said Pat Davis, a spokeswoman for Angus Petroleum, which owns the tower.

Actually, the intriguing structure at Delaware Street and Rochester Avenue is a soundproofed, camouflaged oil drilling rig. The tower is literally the tip of a $25-million, two-year project that will consolidate oil well operations in the central part of the city.

The project is possible through “directional drilling”--drilling underground at an angle--that allows one rig to tap hard-to-reach oil pools at numerous levels beneath the surface. Also, injection of water into the oil-pool area will push petroleum to the surface, making it possible to extract oil from a field that would otherwise be exhausted.

Used by the oil industry for decades, “directional drilling” was pioneered in Huntington Beach in the 1920s and has mostly been used to tap offshore oil deposits.

In 70 years of pumping, the Huntington Beach Oil Field’s three main layers of oil-saturated sand have yielded about 9.6 million barrels of oil. In just 20 years, Angus Petroleum expects to top that figure, using the water injection system to recover 11 million barrels.

City officials have applauded Angus’ move to consolidate the oil wells. They noted that many of the old wells were inactive and had a string of private owners before Angus purchased the oil rights.

“This is a tremendous asset--a first-class operation,” said Mark Bodenbender, oil field inspector for the Huntington Beach Fire Department. “When this project is finished you won’t even know oil is being pumped (there).”

The unusual project involves one rig--the 134-foot tower--that slant-drills thousands of feet beneath Huntington Beach’s downtown residential area. The central drilling site is only half a mile from City Hall. Blocks of expensive homes surround the landscaped, sound-buffered drilling site.

Bodenbender said city government placed tight restrictions on the project so that residents would not be bothered by noise, dirt or traffic.

As a result, the drilling site does not look anything like an oil operation. Until two years ago, the site was a field bounded by Springfield and Rochester avenues, and California and Delaware streets. Angus built a permanent, masonry block wall around the square, planting shrubs and flowers around the fence. A taller, temporary sound buffer “wall” tops the masonry fence.

From the street, one cannot see any activity inside the square, and the site looks very much like a gated housing development.

But inside, activity abounds. Workers scamper up and down the 134-foot rig. Vehicles with special mufflers drive around the site. Oil drilling is under way 24 hours a day.

“We are very conscious of keeping down noise,” Davis said. “That’s why we have all the fences that were specially built and mufflers on the vehicles. We also have noise-level tests that we’re required to give (the results of) to the city at least once a month. We still get some complaints from residents, but not many. We’ve really tried to be a good neighbor.”

Davis said the drilling is expected to be completed in the next six months. After that, almost everything inside the compound will be electrically automated and virtually soundless, she said. “The oil will be pumped out from here to refineries using underground pumps,” she said. “There will be no truck traffic.”

Workers using the 134-foot rig inside the fenced compound said the project is extremely unusual.

“This is real strange--like culture shock,” said Bruce Jackson, 37, of Prescott, Ariz., who is in charge of the drilling. “I’m used to drilling out in the mountains or out in the ocean, out where there are no neighborhoods.”

Jackson said all the noise abatement at the drill site also makes it seem unnatural. The compound includes trailers that serve as temporary housing for workers, and Jackson said he has trouble going to sleep.

“Usually (at a drill site) I relax at night because I can hear everything going on out there, and that puts me to sleep,” Jackson said.

Davis said the consolidation project means more American production of oil because “depleted” oil fields are being given new life.

“We expect 11 million barrels of oil to be taken out from here during the next 20 years,” she said. “An added benefit is that about 200 property owners in this area, who still have mineral rights under their houses, will be getting oil royalties again.”

The city will also be getting more income, since it has a severance tax on oil extracted. Angus officials said they could give no estimate on royalties and tax income to the city from the project since both will depend on the fluctuating price of oil.

The oil rig tower is scheduled to be in operation only for about six more months. After that, all the wells will be completed, and the tower will removed. Angus Petroleum officials say oil pumping could start in late August or early September.

In the meantime, Bodenbender said, the tower may prompt a few flashbacks. He noted that Huntington Beach once was an oil boom town, with drilling rigs and derricks throughout the city 70 years ago.

But little wonder, he added, that many current residents are baffled by the sight of the big oil rig. “There hasn’t been a lot of drilling in our city for a long time,” Bodenbender said.

Pooling Oil Assets

Angus Petroleum is introducing a pumping method that will revive the Huntington Beach Oil Field. Old pumps throughout the area will be replaced by one underground system, reducing noise and air pollution.

1. Running on Empty

When first drilled in the 1920s, gases trapped above the oil pool helped force the petroleum up wells. The gases escaped over time, leaving little pressure to push the remaining oil upward.

2. Flushing out the Field

By drilling new wells at an angle instead of straight down, pumps in one area can reach throughout the field to tap deposits. The oil is sent by pipeline to a Santa Fe Springs refinery.

3. More Land, Less Pollution

About 40 old pumps scattered among homes and businesses were removed, freeing up land and eliminating noise and air pollution. The newly drilled wells will be pumped from a central location.

Recovery wells pump oil to the surface. The injection method will increase the field’s production from 300 barrels a day to about 2,500 barrels daily.

Injection wells use water to flush petroleum toward oil recovery wells. Faults help channel the oil flow. The flooding occurs below the area’s water table, so contamination is not a problem. The water is recycled for injection.

* Typical directional well measurements Note: Drawings not to scale Source: Angus Petroleum Written by Danny Sullivan / Los Angeles Times