The U.S. Department of Energy says the Wilmington Field oil-recovery project's success will be felt throughout the U.S. and world. The project commenced in 1995 to increase recoverable heavy-oil reserves in sections of Wilmington in the Los Angeles Basin operated by Long Beach, California-based Tidelands Oil Production Co. The field is the third largest in the Lower 48.

Upon the project's end on March 31, the DOE counts an additional 525 million barrels of incremental oil production from the field, a 2.4% increase in total U.S. proved oil reserves. The best wells were drilled in an area that had been virtually given up as depleted, the DOE adds. Initial well rates ranged from 159 to 1,048 barrels per day.

Occidental Petroleum Corp., Los Angeles, recently acquired Tidelands and is developing one of the largest steamflood projects in the world in the Mukhaizna oil field in central Oman.

Project manager for the DOE Jim Barnes says, "The innovations developed during the Wilmington project are noteworthy because they can be used anywhere and are not limited to this specific project."

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