The discovery well, Ojai Fee No. 35, was drilled in 1912, and completed for 100 barrels a day, 22.8° gravity, between 2,387-3,919 feet. In 1942, well No. 44 was drilled as a straight hole to the depth of 8,735 feet, and was completed in the interval, 2,425-4,357 feet. Both wells passed through a thrust fault from Pliocene into Miocene; however, as located, well No. 44 encountered only a small amount of lower Mohnian and was completed largely in older beds. The rediscovery of the field came about in 1947 with the drilling of No. 45 for the purpose of determining the attitude of the fault, and to obtain full information regarding the attitude of the beds and character of the reservoir beneath this fault. From this information a program of directed holes was undertaken o maintain a high structural position beneath the fault and to encounter a greater amount of productive section. Development proceeded east and west to the present size of approximately 1½ miles in length and slightly more than 1/3 mile in width, and having twenty wells. Cumulative production to July, 1949, when the field was shut in due to general curtailment of lower-gravity crude fields in the state, has been 496,000 barrels, average gravity 19°-20°.

Structurally, the productive zone of Mohnian sands and fractured shales on the east end dips 80° toward the north, overturned; on the west end of the productive zone dips 50°-60° southward, upright. Most wells penetrate the Sisar fault (Miocene over Pliocene) and the North Sulphur Mountain fault (Pliocene over Miocene) in order to reach the productive zone.

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