Occidental Nails California's Largest Discoveries in Decades

Okay, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's first clarify this is not Prudhoe Bay, the East Texas Oil Field, Wilmington or even Thuderhorse. But it's a respectable find, particularly for a state long past its oil glory: 150 million to 250 million barrels of oil equivalent reserves, the bulk of it in natural gas. Located in Kern County, it's the state's largest find in over 35 years.

Occidental reported earlier they were bucking conventional wisdom, looking for California crude where others saw dirt. That was July 25; who would have guessed they would strike this lucky, this quickly? And good timing, too: their second-quarter profit slumped 70%.

California-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. announced a significant discovery in the south of the state that it says is among the largest finds in 35 years.

Occidental said it made new discoveries in Kern County, Calif. The U.S. energy giant said it believes there are between 150 million and 250 million barrels of oil equivalent reserves in the discovery area.

Ray Irani, chairman and chief executive officer at Occidental, said it is "probable" there are additional resources in place outside the delineated area, which it plans to explore within the next five years.

The bulk of the reserves in the discovery zone are in natural gas. Irani lauded the discovery as one of the biggest finds in decades.

"We believe this to be the largest new oil and gas discovery made in California in more than 35 years," he said.

- Brewskie

Tessara Plans 500MW Solar Project

It's no Sahara solar project, but we'll take what we can get. Tessera Solar Plans 500MW Solar Thermal Power in Riverside County, California.

Tessera said it's teaming up with Optiflex Properties & Development on developing and financing the power plants, which would be located on closed landfills and undeveloped properties, said Janette Coates, a spokeswoman for Tessera.

Tessera announced the project earlier this week, about two weeks after it said it would build a 27-megawatt solar project in Texas and sell the power to CPS Energy, which is run by the city of San Antonio.

Building 500 megawatts would require about 3,500 acres, she said. Tessera and Optiflex are scouting for ideal locations in Riverside for erecting Stirling Energy Systems' SunCatcher equipment.

A SunCatcher is made up of a giant parabolic dish of mirrors (40 feet across) to concentrate the sun onto a receiver called a "power conversion unit (PCU)." Sunlight heats up the hydrogen gas in tubes in the PCU, and the gas goes through a heat exchanger to run a four-cylinder Stirling engine. The engine then drives a generator to produce electricity.

Stirling Energy Systems (SES) recently unveiled a newly designed SunCatcher that it said would be easy to mass produce and maintain than its first-generation design.

The history of Stirling engines goes back to 1816, when Robert Stirling in Scotland designed the first machine and built it two years later to pump water from a quarry.

The companies plan to start construction between 2010 and 2012.

- Brewskie

'Ders Still Black Gold in 'Dem Hills?

California's oil glory is long past. It's production peaked back in '85 at 1.1 mbpd (or 1.2 - whatever) and is now spurting out 666,000. However, one maverick cornucopian, Occidental Petroleum Corp., is bucking conventional wisdom and is heading for the hills for what it believes lays buried treasure (link):

Occidental Petroleum Corp., the fourth-biggest U.S. oil producer by market value, is drilling exploratory wells in California in a bet that deposits there hold hundreds of millions of barrels of crude.

Occidental is counting on prospects near Long Beach and in other parts of the state to drive “meaningful” reserves and output growth in the next decade, Chief Executive Officer Ray Irani said. The company will drill 20 exploratory wells this year on sites ignored by rivals that quit searching California in the 1970s in favor of the North Sea and South America.

[...]

“While Texas is a big base for us that over the next 10 years will continue to grow modestly, California is going to grow in a meaningful way,” Irani, the longest-serving CEO of a major U.S. oil company, said yesterday in an interview at Occidental’s headquarters in Los Angeles.

Chief Financial Officer Stephen Chazen said the company is targeting fields with oil and natural-gas reserves equivalent to at least 150 million barrels of crude each. That would be about one-third the size of Chevron’s deepwater Tahiti field in the Gulf of Mexico, which began production in May.

‘Sizeable’ Fields

“We’re very excited about California because it’s a very under-explored area,” Chazen said in the same interview. “You are not going to find Prudhoe Bay, but I think you’ll find sizeable fields here left in California.”

[...]

Occidental has been quietly amassing leaseholds on California land for the past five years with a view to tapping reserves that were overlooked or dismissed by other companies, said Irani, 74. Those leases now encompass 1.1 million acres, an area three times the size of New York City.

- Brewskie

California's Wonderful Solar Subisdies

As mentioned recently, China announced massive subsidies to encourage the purchase and installation of solar panels, and the usage of solar-powered electricity. Now, the Golden State has decided to dole out liberal subsidies, too. Catch the link, or read below:

The state of California pays $3.30 a watt for solar panels to power common areas – i.e., parking lots and hallways – and $4.00 a watt for solar panels to provide power to individual apartments, says Richard Raeke, director of project finance at Borrego Solar.

The subsidies can be determined by square footage if the complex is on a centralized master power meter. If 20 percent of a complex's electrical load gets consumed by the common areas, 20 percent of the rebate is at the $3.30 rate and the rest goes at $4.00.

We're really looking at 40 to 60 percent of the cost," he said.

By contrast, standard homeowners get $1.55 a watt in California.

[...]

The state has also created a solar subsidy for low-income individual homes that range from $7 to $5.75. At $7 a watt, the subsidy would cover more than the
cost of installing a solar system now, which can be put in for just under $7 a watt. Nonetheless, the building must be occupied by residents with federal income tax liability ranging from $2,000 to zero.

California set aside $108 million for the Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (MASH) program as part of its comprehensive solar initiative. The state's public utility commission fleshed out the program in November 2007. However, it only began accepting applications somewhat recently. The money will be spent over the next four years.

- Brewskie

Sweet Blazin' Lights - 1.3 Gigawatts of Solar (Yes, Gigawatts)!

(Hat tip: Peak Energy) The bright prophecy of solar in America's southwest is just starting to bear fruit. The largest solar deal ever inked: a deal between the utility Southern California Edison, and solar power plant maker, BrightSource, for 1.3 gigawatts of solar installations - more juice than even the largest nuke plant. The deal calls for solar thermal power as opposed to conventional photovoltaic; solar thermal concentrates the sun's rays to create steam in a boiler to turn a turbine.

More detail from the Wired magazine article:

The momentous deal will deliver more electricity than even the largest nuclear plant, spread out among seven facilities, the first of which will start up in 2013. When fully operational, the companies say the facility will provide enough electricity to power 845,000 homes — more than exist in San Francisco — though estimates like that are notoriously squirrely.

[...]

The new deal breaks the company's own record for the largest ever solar deal. The new installations, when completed, will produce 3.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Previously, they'd cut a deal to deliver 900 megawatts of power to the Northern California utility, PG&E.

[...]

The 1980s-era solar thermal plants use the oldest solar thermal technology around, known as a parabolic trough. Mirrors shaped like a paper-towel roll cut in half concentrate the sun's rays on a liquid. That heat can be transformed into various types of energy. The Luz fields made electricity, but Frank Shuman built a plant based on this principle to pump water in Egypt in the first decade of the 20th century.

The new design sounds more exciting. Mirrors that track the sun — heliostats — sit in a massive field around a tower with a boiler. All those mirrors concentrate the sun's heat on the boiler, which makes steam and drives a turbine.

Blazin'

- Brewskie