Exploration and Production in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties, California: Oil Well Operators, 1950-1997

BACKGROUND:  MMS requested researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara to conduct an historic analysis of the petroleum extraction industry in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties from 1950 to 2015. The researchers developed separate, stand-alone reports on each of the three counties include an analysis of the oil industry’s evolution and projected future, its relationships with the surrounding communities, and its role in a complex economy. They also investigated the regulatory context in which oil does business, and to the kinds of innovations developed to operate in the Santa Barbara Channel’s natural and social environment. In addition to these reports, they produced an inventory of all firms operating in the tri-counties during these years, and which oil fields they operated and organizational notes culled from a number of sources.

This summary was developed by the researchers.

OBJECTIVES:  Our goal in producing the inventory was to summarize various data from a number of sources in order to detail comprehensively all of the firms that operated in the area for the post-World War II period. We used this information itself as input for reports developed in the current project. Further, we believe that the information may be useful to future analyses of the regional oil industry.

DESCRIPTION:  We used primary source data contained in the Index of Well Records at the State of California’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources offices in Orcutt and Ventura to construct the basic inventory of oil well operators. We supplemented this with organizational data that we culled from a number of sources, including industry personnel directories and trade publications, newspapers, business publications, corporate websites and annual reports, and reports submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SIGNIFICANT CONCLUSIONS:  As this inventory itself constitutes a primary document, there are no significant conclusions that we attach to the findings. We note that a number of the researchers involved in this study have used the data contained herein as evidence in support of arguments and descriptions contained in the reports published in conjunction with this study.

STUDY RESULTS:  Again, as this inventory itself constitutes a primary document, there are no significant conclusions that we attach to the findings. We note that a number of the researchers involved in this study have used the data contained herein as evidence in support of arguments and descriptions contained in the reports published in conjunction with this study.

STUDY PRODUCTS:

Adamson, Michael R. "Oil Exploration and Production in California’s Santa Barbara and Ventura Basins: The Structure of Industry, 1950-1995."

Adamson, Michael R. "Oil Exploration and Production in California’s Santa Barbara and Ventura Basins: The Persistence of Small Entrepreneurs in the Regional Oil Industry, 1950-1995."

Adamson, Michael and Randolph Bergstrom. Exploration and Production in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties, California: Oil Well Operators, 1950-1997. OCS Study MMS 98-0061.

Beamish, Thomas D. Silent Spill. Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Sociology. University of California-Santa Barbara.

Beamish, Thomas D. "Silent Spill: Responsible Party, Remedial Agency, and Community Responses to a Creeping Case of Contamination." A paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 1998.

Beamish, Thomas D, Harvey Molotch, Perry Shapiro and Randolph Bergstrom. Petroleum Extraction in San Luis Obispo County, California: An Industrial History. OCS Study MMS 98-0049

Beamish, Thomas D. and Krista Paulsen. "The Santa Barbara Channel Post-Petroleum Economy: Environmental Consulting Proliferates."

Nevarez, Leonard, Harvey Molotch, Perry Shapiro and Randolph Bergstrom. Petroleum Extraction in Santa Barbara County, California: An Industrial History. OCS Study MMS 98-0048.

Paulsen, Krista, Harvey Molotch, Perry Shapiro and Randolph Bergstrom. Petroleum Extraction in Ventura County, California: An Industrial History. OCS Study MMS 98-0047.

Romo, Jacqueline. Women on the Rigs: A Gender Accomplishment. Masters thesis. Department of Sociology. University of California-Santa Barbara.