Low Production Behind Move to Plug Oil Wells
Plummeting oil prices can’t be blamed for Mobil’s decision to plug and abandon 36 wells on Ferguson Pier northwest of Ventura.
“We’re shutting down strictly because production there has declined to practically nothing,” said Darlene Taylor, spokeswoman for Mobil Exploration & Producing U. S., a unit of Mobil Inc. “Only nine of the wells are currently active, and they’re averaging only 20 barrels a day.”
Taylor said the decision to close the 63-year-old operation was made long before the price of Kern River crude fell to its current level of about $8 a barrel. Some oil experts say it costs $10 to produce a barrel of oil.
“We look at the big picture,” Taylor said. “We know the price is cyclical and will come back.” She said Mobil is moving ahead with a drilling project in the Santa Barbara Channel and has no plans to abandon its lone remaining Ventura County operation, in the Ventura Avenue area north of Ventura.
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