BAKERSFIELD, Calif.-- Chevron Corp. is employing new technologies in hopes of extending the life of one of the world's oldest and most prolific oil fields, a process that is being replicated elsewhere to help the energy industry squeeze more out of aging oil basins.


The Kern River field has produced more than 2 billion barrels of oil in its 110-year history, but Chevron estimates it still holds another 1.5 billion barrels.

Chevron is using the Kern River field as a real-world laboratory, testing enhanced recovery techniques and bringing in engineers from around the world to learn them. "The thing about being in this old oil field," said Chevron engineer Joe Fram, "you can try stuff."

To get as many of those barrels as possible out of the ground—and do so cheaply enough to turn a profit—Chevron is deploying high-tech temperature sensors to monitor its production, using three-dimensional computer models to plan its wells and filtering waste water from the fields through walnut shells so it can be re-used.

Chevron's renewed focus on Kern River shows both the opportunities and the challenges facing the oil industry as the giant discoveries of the last century, from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay to Mexico's Cantarell, begin to dry up. Prudhoe Bay, for example, has suffered production declines even though more than half its 25 billion barrels of oil remain in the ground.

To get the oil out of the Kern River field, Chevron injects steam into the ground, which heats the rock and thins out the gooey liquid so that it flows more easily to the surface. The process is far more expensive than conventional oil production, with thin profit margins that can disappear entirely when oil prices drop or costs rise.

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