Kern Front Oil Field
The Kern Front Oil Field is a large oil and gas field in the lower Sierra Nevada foothills in Kern County, California. Discovered in 1912, and with a cumulative production of around 210 million barrels (33,000,000 m3) of oil, it ranks 29th in size in the state, and is believed to retain approximately ten percent of its original oil (approximately 22 million barrels (3,500,000 m3)), according to the official estimates of the California Department of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR). It is adjacent to the much larger Kern River Oil Field, which is to the southeast, and the Mount Poso Oil Field to the north.
The Kern Front Field is approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) due north of the city of Oildale, and 10 miles (16 km) north of Bakersfield, in the first gentle rise of the hills above the floor of the San Joaquin Valley. It is about 6 miles (9.7 km) long by 2.5 miles (4.0 km), with the long axis being in the north-south direction, comprising a productive surface area of 5,495 acres (22.24 km2). Elevations vary from approximately 500 to 1,000 feet (150 to 300 m) above sea level. The field is spread out, especially compared to the exceedingly dense development in the adjacent Kern River Oil Field, which has one of the densest oil developments in the United States, with over 9,000 oil wells clustered in just several square miles. The Kern Front Field is bounded on the west by California State Route 65, on the southwest by James Road, and on the southeast by Bakersfield-Glennville Road. Oilfields Road runs south to north through the field.
Being within the ecological subsection of the California Central Valley known as the Hardpan Terraces, at an elevation of less than 1,000 feet (300 m), the predominant native vegetation is needlegrass. The climate is hot and arid, with summertime temperatures routinely exceeding 100 °F (38 °C); the mean freeze-free period runs from about 250 to 300 days. Mean annual precipitation is around 10 inches (250 mm), almost all as rain and almost all in the winter; summers are characteristically rainless.
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