The Castaic Hills field is located about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, adjacent to U. S. Highway 99.

The Ted Sterling-Rynne Fisher No. 1, drilled in September, 1951, was the discovery well. As the field was developed, the Standard and Richfield-Golden wells were mediocre and appeared to indicate the western edge of production. However, the Standard Oil moved three locations west and drilled Villa 45 which produced more than 800 barrels a day. This led to the extension of the field a mile west.

The accumulation is due to a combination pinch-out fault trap on the flank of a plunging nose. The faults and abrupt stratigraphic changes make electric-log correlations difficult for the most part.

The producing sands are upper Mohnian in age, and approximately equivalent to the Wayside zone of the Honor Rancho field. The upper Sterling sand varies from zero to about 85 feet in thickness; the lower zone varies from zero to more than 140 feet. The sand distribution is lenticular and irregular. The recent completion of the Standard's Villa No. 26 probably indicates the presence of two different water tables in the producing zones.

At present there are 55 producing wells in the field, which have produced more than 3 million barrels of oil. Currently, negotiations are under way for unitization and repressuring.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 139------------