Placerita Oil Field Wells (near roads) Identified

These oil wells are currently visible from Golden Valley Road, Sierra Highway, Placerita Canyon, or the Quigley Canyon Open Space trail, and are also wells that I could get close enough to identify. A lot of wells on the Placerita Oil Field seem are drilled in twos. These wells are using directional drilling (or slant drilling or whipstocking), where the drill pipe does not go straight down but heads off in some pre-determined angle and direction. This saves money by having the wells close together because after one is drilled, the equipment only has to move a short distance to the next well site.

Some of the wells have pumps to retrieve the oil. Others are being used are for injection of waste water for disposal or injection of steam to push the oil toward pumping wells. Some are cyclic flowback wells that retrieve oil from pressure in the ground caused by the injected steam. Some of the wells have workover rigs over them. These wells are being reworked, redrilled, or having tests done to them. There are many types of tests (well integrity, pressure, and mechanical) that are required by law to be done on existing wells. There are also many shut in wells throughout the oil field. These wells have not been plugged and are capable of producing if need be.

I'm going to travel south on Golden Valley Road, right (south) on Sierra Highway, right (west) on Placerita Canyon Road, park at the Quigley Canyon Open Space, and hike that trail. The dates in parenthesis are when the photos were taken.

Note: Spudded date is the date that drilling started on the well. The spudded date and total depth of each well was taken from CalGem (formerly Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources - DOGGR) records on their webpage. Most of the wells were drilled in less than a week.

The first group of wells we can just see on the right near the top of Golden Valley Road past the fire station. These are somewhat hidden by a hill. Here is a workover rig on one of the wells. (Photo taken on 7/6/2013)

Closer view of the rig. Notice the man standing on the platform at the middle of the rig. (7/6/2013)

Full view of a rig during another job 1 1/2 years later. There are three wells at this site. (1/24/2015)

Side view showing that this is Rig #18. (1/24/2015)

View of pad showing three wells on the right and equipment on the left. There are pipes from the equipment to the wells under the ground. Thse are probably injection wells because they are located on the outside of the oil field. (5/22/2016)

Closer view of wells. From the front is Sedlacek 2, Sedlacek 3, and unmarked well (either Sedlacek 7 or Sedlacek 5). Sedlacek 2 was spudded on 8/13/2000 and drilled to a depth of 4102 feet. Sedlacek 3 was spudded on 1/10/1988 and drilled to 4517 feet. The well records state that these wells are used for water disposal. I do not know why #3 was drilled 12 years before #2, but that's what the records show. (5/22/2016)

Just past the previous wells behind a fence are these wells. This view is looking down on Golden Valley Road. Two wells are on pumps (although the close one is not pumping) and 6 are not being used. (5/22/2016)

There are 8 wells here, but three are unnamed. Going from left to right, the first well is Kennedy 09-50, spudded on 10/30/2001 and drilled to a depth of 3132 feet. The next three wells are unidentified. Then there is Kennedy NRC 601A, with a pump (although not pumping when this photo was taken). It was spudded on 8/11/2005 and drilled to 2921 feet. The next one is Kennedy NRC 700 (spud 6/29/2005; 3246 feet). Then, with a working pump, is Kennedy NRC 10-2. It was spudded on 8/1/2005 and was drilled to 3196 feet. The last well is Kennedy NRC 600 (spud 7/7/2005, 3204 feet). Some of the wells are hard to see in this photo. (5/22/2016)

Just west of Sierra Highway (road in photo) south of Golden Valley: These two wells are Kraft 124 (nearest Sierra Highway) and Kraft 123. (4/5/2016)

Closer view of wells. Kraft 124 (on the right) was spudded on 7/15/2013 and drilled to a total depth of 1202 feet. Kraft 123 was spudded on 7/12/2013 and drilled to 1467 feet. (4/5/2016)

Just west of Sierra Highway (road in photo) close to Placerita Canyon Road: These two wells are Kraft 11-21 (nearest Sierra Highway) and Kraft 12-21. An "Oak of the Golden Dream" marker is next to Sierra Highway. (4/5/2016)

Closer view of wells. Kraft 11-21 (on the right) was spudded on 11/7/1991 and drilled to a total depth of 1274 feet. Kraft 12-21 was spudded on 11/10/1991 and drilled to 1214 feet. (4/5/2016)

Just south of Placerita Canyon and west of Sierra Highway are these four wells in the foreground - two on the left and two on the right. The aqueduct is in the left part of the photo. (5/22/2016)

The two wells on the right are Highway 117 (in the front) and Highway 113. Highway 117 was spudded on 4/12/2012 and drilled to 1765 feet. Highway 113 was spudded on 8/5/2011 and drilled to 1700 feet. (4/17/2016)

Workover rig on Highway 117 (8/2/2015)

These are the two wells on the left nearer to the aqueduct. Kraft 5-21 is in front of Highway 6-22. Kraft 5-21 was spudded on 9/30/1991 and drilled to 1690 feet. Highway 6-22 was spudded on 10/7/1991 and drilled to 1528 feet. Rather odd that the wells are so close together and yet on different leases (the Kraft lease and the Highway lease). (4/17/2016)

Now we are in the Quigley Canyon Open Space. This is a little up the Clean Energy Trail. Looking up the road (toward the east) at the place where hikers turn left at a trail marker, are these two wells. (5/22/2016)

Closer view of these wells. On the left is Castruccio T-27 (spudded on 3/19/1988, total depth of 2052 feet) and on the right is Castruccio T-28 (spudded on 3/15/1988, depth of 2000 feet). (3/29/2016)

Further up the trail, looking south, are these wells. (5/22/2016)

Here is a closer view of the pad. There are 6 wells here. The pumping well on the left is Castruccio 132, spudded on 8/12/2013 and drilled to 2195 feet.. The pumping well on far right is Castruccio T-20, spudded on 4/14/1988 and drilled to 1935 feet. The other non-pumping wells are also Castruccio wells. (5/22/2016)

At the top of the Clean Energy Trail, the large flat area, is this well. (5/22/2016)

This is Wickham Ferrier 44, spudded in 8/11/2010 and drilled to a depth of 2936 feet. It may be used for fluid injection into the ground, but it also may be a cyclic flowback well, obtaining oil from the ground. (5/22/2016)

Cyclic flowback well diagram from the 2008 Invester Conference PDF.

Heading west further on the trail along the ridge, if you look down (north) into Quigley Canyon you may see this well (actually two wells). Here, a workover rig is working on one of the wells. The far loop of the Fox Loop trail is just visible in the canyon on the left. The Coyote Loop trail is also visible on the upper left heading up (or down) the hill. (3/29/2016)

Closer view of the two wells. (3/29/2016)

Same wells but this time a CT (coiled tube) rig is over the same well. (8/12/2015)

Closer view. A CT rig can do just about anything a regular workover rig can do. (8/12/2015)

Here we are at ground level in the canyon at the site of the wells. The well on the left is Pryor WD-5. The well on the right is not identified. It is the one the workover and CT rigs were working on. (3/29/2016)

Closer view of the Pryor WD-5. This well was spudded on 8/8/2001 and drilled to a depth of 2852 feet. Is it an injection well or a cyclic flow back well? (3/29/2016)

Now we are at the top of the Coyote Loop trail. Here are three wells pretty close together. This is a view toward the east with Confusion Hill in the background. (3/16/2016)

Sedlacek 5, spudded on 12/13/2002, total depth of 4602 feet. (3/16/2016)

Sedlacek 6, spudded on 8/6/2007, total depth of 4223 feet. Attached to the wellhead is a nice example of a Christmas Tree. A Christmas Tree is an assembly of valves, spools, and fittings used on a well. (3/16/2016)

Diagram of Christmas Tree from here.

Sedlacek 7, spudded on 8/20/2010, total depth of 4380 feet. (3/16/2016)

This is a shut in well. It hasn't been plugged and, if necessary, could be used again. You can see a lot of these along Sierra Highway. The ones that I could get close to, like this one, have no sign indicating the well name. Sierra Highway is on the right with the tops of the pumps for Kraft 123 and Kraft 124 on the upper left. (4/5/2016)

Plugged well. Most of these are plugged below the surface and buried so all that is left is the flat pad. (4/13/2016)

Workover rig ready to be driven to a well site. This is Rig #8 and was parked along Golden Valley Road for a short while. Sometimes you will see little signs with directional arrows with a rig number, like "Rig #8 ->", at a side road indicating to the driver where to go. (11/23/2015)

The injection fluids, or steam, flowing through these tan pipes need to be slowed down to kill some of the energy. They accomplish this by putting in these 90 degree bends either vertically, like this one, or horizontally. (5/22/2016)

The main pipes are actually inside of outside tan pipes, like this exposure shows. Cement plugs keep the inside pipe in the middle of the outside pipe. Maybe the outer pipe with the layer of air (and cement) acts as insulation for the inner pipe, but I'm just guessing. (5/22/2016)