The South Belridge Oil Field is a large oil field in northwestern Kern County, San Joaquin Valley, California, about forty miles west of Bakersfield. Discovered in 1911, and having a cumulative production of over 1,500 million barrels (240,000,000 m3) of oil at the end of 2008, it is the fourth-largest oil field in California, after the Midway-Sunset Oil Field, Kern River Oil Field, and Wilmington Oil Field, and is the sixth-most productive field in the United States. Its estimated remaining reserves, as of the end of 2008, were around 494 million barrels (78,500,000 m3), the second-largest in the state, and it had 6,253 active wells. The principal operator on the field was Aera Energy LLC, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil. Additionally, the field included the only onshore wells in California owned and operated by ExxonMobil.
The South Belridge Oil Field in Southern and Central California. Other oil fields are shown in gray.
The San Joaquin kit fox. Kit foxes can be found on the South Belridge and other Kern County oil fields, as they are tolerant of disturbance, and sometimes use pipes and man-made openings as dens.
A row of nodding donkey oil wells at the South Belridge Field
A rendering of the in-development solar field being built at the South Belridge Field
Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield.
Image: Downtown Bakersfield
Image: 2009 0726 CA National Chavez Center
Image: Fort Tejon Barracks from CO Qtrs
Image: F 35 at Edwards