Oxy-Cal

CC:stä liittyen Kalifornian löytöön:

"A significant portion of the domestic increase is from of our new discovery in Kern County California which we announced last quarter. In the new discovery area, we currently have gross production of approximately 26,000 BOE per day, which is 8,700 BOE per day more than we reported to you last quarter. We continued to be excited about OXY’s growth potential in California."

"Turning now to California exploration. Excluding the Kern County discovery discussed in last quarter’s conference call, over the course of a little over a year, we have drilled 34 exploration wells seeking non-traditional hydrocarbon zones in California. Of these wells, 11 are commercial and 10 are currently being evaluated. We expect to drill an additional seven exploration wells this year.

OXY holds $1.1 million acres net of fee minerals in leasehold in California, which had been acquired in the last few years to exploit these opportunities. Discoveries similar to the Kern County discovery are possible in this net acreage position. Additionally, we will continue to pursue shale production which is expected to produce oil on this acreage. Kern County discovery, which is near Elk Hills is not below any producing zones. In this area, we are currently producing some 10 wells, approximately 105 million cubic feet of gas a day and 8,500 barrels of liquids a day, which is 8,700 BOE a day higher than production than we disclosed last quarter."

Cumulative gross production since we started production to the end of September has been 8.5 BCF of gas and 765,000 barrels of liquids. All of these productions come from conventional zones. While there is oil production from shale zones in this area, the bulk of the future production will come from conventional wells.

During 2009, we expect to drill additional 11 wells. In the next two quarters, the focus of our drilling will be on oil wells as we seek to further define the oil zone.

"It varies considerably. We have some things that are making several thousand a day of oil, some wells that are less productive. So, few hundred barrels a day. So that's a fair amount of variation between well. And actually be a focusing on it over the next couple quarters so we can figure out what the better part are. It's a little more complicated than the gas zone, which is fairly easy to engineer."