U.S. dependence on foreign oil wanes as domestic production booms
Bruce Bullock, director of Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ's Maguire Energy Institute, talks about how domestic oil production is reducing dependence on foreign imports.
By Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
In a downtown Los Angeles skyscraper, Hal Washburn is drilling for oil.
Using a black high-definition computer screen, the petroleum engineer traces the ghostly white outlines of century-year-old vertical oil wells punctuated by the bright green and red of more recent efforts. The newer wells flare with what look like thousands of tiny hairs; the hotter the color, the greater the amount of oil.
"Today, we drill a lot of wells on the computer before we drill underground," said Washburn, chief executive of Breitburn Energy Partners.
The new crude being tapped — on screen and in real life — comes from Santa Barbara County's Orcutt oil field, one of the state's oldest, previously thought to be in terminal decline.
"It's been a huge home run for us," Washburn said.
Domestic energy producers like Breitburn have helped reverse the nation's once-escalating dependence on foreign oil by finding new ways to figure out the secrets buried beneath our feet....
Bruce Bullock, executive director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵ Methodist University, was more specific: "Three-dimensional seismic technology has become much more sophisticated. New drilling methods allow them to penetrate formations that were once thought to be impenetrable. So we've seen a lot of investment dollars going back into areas that had appeared very unpromising."