This Week in Petroleum History, December 18 to December 24
December 18, 1929 – California Oil Boom in Venice –
The Ohio Oil Company completed a wildcat well in Venice, California, on the Marina Peninsula, east of the Grand Canal, two blocks from the ocean. The oilfield discovery well produced 3,000 barrels of oil a day from a depth of 6,200 feet. The Ohio Oil Company, which would become Marathon Oil of Ohio, had received a zoning variance permitting exploration within the city limits. Discovery of the Venice oilfield launched another California drilling boom similar to Signal Hill eight years earlier.
“Derricks by the Road” by California artist JoAnn Cowans (1933-2022), who in the early 1960s painted Venice and Brea oilfield derricks before they were dismantled.
