Potential for Disaster May Seep from Basin’s 70 Oil and Gas Fields

At the state Division of Oil and Gas offices in Long Beach, there are maps that tell much about the geological and mineral development of Los Angeles and Orange counties.

In fascinating detail, these maps show the boundaries of every oil field and the location of every oil well ever drilled, from Newhall in the north to Newport Beach in the south.

In some respects, the maps are a reminder of Southern California’s rich history as an oil and gas producer since the late 1880s.

Since last week’s methane gas explosion that injured 22 people in a Fairfax district discount department store, they also serve as a startling reminder that some of the Los Angeles Basin’s most concentrated residential and business areas have been built on what were once thriving oil and gas fields.

There are 70 oil fields in the basin, 19 of them abandoned.

“There are uncounted numbers of developments, a high degree of urban development . . . in and around and over the old oil fields,” said R. K. Baker, operations supervisor for the Division of Oil and Gas.

Indeed, many of the residential areas immediately northwest of the Harbor and Pasadena freeways near downtown Los Angeles are dotted with hundreds of abandoned and even some active oil wells. There are active oil wells in Beverly Hills and throughout the Westside. Many coastal cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties were virtually built on top of oil fields, as were inland cities, including Whittier, Montebello and Newhall.

But now, geologists say, there is growing concern that the old oil fields are beginning to repressure themselves--causing a potentially dangerous situation where there is above-ground development.

The repressurization occurs as water intrudes into the field, squeezing the remaining oil and gas upward. Often, the residual oil and gas can amount to 60% to 70% of the original find.

Don Lande, technical support supervisor for the Division of Oil and Gas, said geologists do not know how long it takes for repressurization to occur. But once it happens, he added, a field has as much pressure as it did before any oil or gas was removed.

“If something is going to leak, it will leak a little faster if the pressure is high,” Lande said. “It (a field) may not have leaked 20 years ago, but now it may start to leak.”

There are at least 51 active locations in Los Angeles County where oil and gas are seeping naturally to the surface through faults and cracks in the strata. Most of those leaks are in the La Brea-Hancock Park-Fairfax area, where last week’s blast occurred. That is one of the areas Lande said may be repressuring.

Underground Sumps

The City of Los Angeles has built 18 underground sumps to collect oil that is seeping on public property; in the last year, some of those sumps have had to be pumped out at almost twice the rate of a year ago. City spokesmen said they do not know what is causing the sumps to fill so fast.

Although the seepage has been identified mainly in the area of the blast, and at the Castaic oil fields near Newhall, there is evidence to indicate that methane gas problems can be found throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties:

--Earlier this year, explosive levels of methane gas were detected in Manhattan Beach. Although there is some suspicion that the gas is migrating underground from Chevron U.S.A.’s refinery in El Segundo, the source has yet to be established. In any case, there is agreement that the fumes are seeping into two Manhattan Beach neighborhoods from other areas. Geologists investigating the Fairfax explosion have speculated that the methane gas in the Ross Dress for Less store could have traveled as far as a mile before it entered the basement.

--In 1973, the force of oil rising from an improperly sealed abandoned well cracked the concrete foundation of a Newport Beach residence and flooded the kitchen. Ultimately, the thick oil pushed the concrete floor about two to four feet above ground level, owner Roy Neel said. Neel said that even today, there is still so much methane gas in his neighborhood that other residents have pushed pipes into the ground, fitted the tops with tin cans and made tiki torches out of them.

More Pressure to Build

Officials now worry that as Southern California’s population continues to grow and land for development becomes increasingly scarce, the pressure to build on both active and abandoned oil fields will increase.

Compounding the potential problem, they say, is that many of the old wells throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties, like the well under the Neel house, were not abandoned properly in the first place.

Instead, their owners walked away from them 50 years ago when state regulations were all but non-existent. These wells pose a greater danger of leaking gas and oil than wells properly sealed off, Lande said.

Today, greater precautions are taken to seal wells. But Division of Oil and Gas officials said that even properly abandoned wells can cause problems, and this gives them more reason for concern.

Although there are laws requiring that wells be properly abandoned, the division can only hope that cities and counties notify the state agency before they issue building permits on old oil field sites.

“The problem is we sometimes don’t get notified on these things and a building does get built over it, and then we run into a problem,” Baker said.

Forceful Gas Leak

Such was the case in 1981, when the Farmers Insurance Group building in the 4600 block of Wilshire Boulevard was under construction.

In digging the shaft for an elevator, the contractor punctured a clay dome over a pocket of methane gas that escaped with such force that the drilling rig was nearly blown out of the hole, according to Ron Lofy, an engineer.

In this case, the insurance company turned the gas find to its advantage: The building is safely heated and cooled by a boiler fueled by an estimated 5 million cubic feet of methane trapped in a natural reservoir covering two to four square blocks. The reservoir appears to be recharging itself as fast as the building occupants can burn the methane, at a rate of 175,000 cubic feet a month.

Although the Fairfax blast served notice that methane gas is an ever-present problem in the Los Angeles Basin, public officials are quick to point out that other dangers also lurk below ground.

In Los Angeles, for example, there are more than 480 miles of underground fuel lines that snake their way beneath streets and hills. Most of them are owned by major oil companies.

In December, 1980, a leaking 1947-vintage pipeline running beneath a Long Beach neighborhood carrying highly volatile naphtha ignited, destroying nine homes and badly burning two men.

Volleys of Fireballs

In June, 1976, an excavation machine digging a median strip on Venice Boulevard struck an underground gasoline pipeline. The fuel, under 550 pounds of pressure, spewed into the air, ignited and sent volleys of fireballs rolling across the street. Nine people were killed, 14 were burned and 16 buildings were destroyed or damaged.

The magnitude of such disasters is beyond question. But, for the most part, officials say that avoiding such man-made calamities is possible.

They note, however, that there is little that can be done to tame the natural forces that push oil and gas to the surface.

In the aftermath of the Fairfax incident, there have been calls for new vigilance. The city and businesses in the blast area are considering the installation of gas detection meters. There have been calls for venting old oil fields so that pressure does not build up.

“If I had a business in this area, I think I’d be concerned. If I lived in this area, I think I’d be concerned,” Los Angeles Assistant Fire Chief Joseph E. Lockwood said last week as he listened to reports coming into a command post set up in the Farmers Market parking lot across the street from the blast scene.

‘Completely Unprepared’

The state Division of Oil and Gas has proposed a task force that will be ready to move in the event of another emergency. “We hope there’s never another emergency situation like this,” said Rich Manuel, the division’s operations engineer. “But if there is, we don’t expect to have to work under these emergency conditions. We were completely unprepared on this.”

Meanwhile, state Senate Democratic Leader David A. Roberti of Los Angeles has introduced legislation requiring the supervisor of the Division of Oil and Gas to conduct an immediate study of abandoned oil and gas wells in the Los Angeles area and come up with a plan to extract methane gas to prevent future explosions.