	energy california oil production drilling for oil in california is likely to continue at last year s sharply reduced levels despite recent gains in  oil prices industry analysts said because much of the  oil in california fields is thick heavy and expensive to extract oil prices would have to increase to near s levels before any significant recovery is seen in drilling they said companies will probably only drill their best prospects said john curti an analyst with birr wilson securities inc few new wells now are being drilled only rigs about one quarter of the total available were drilling for oil onshore in california last week compared to about last year said bill bolster of munger oil information services which tracks california drilling activity it s in the dregs right now said bolster of the state s drilling activity current prices are not enough to justify increased drilling said ed malmgreen of the california independent producers association while an organization of petroleum exporting countries pact to curb production boosted oil prices early this year prices eventually fell prices for california s marker grade line blend have slumped about pct in the last month to dlrs from a high of about dlrs more than half of california s oil comes from stripper wells those producing less than barrels a day and that much of that oil costs between and dlrs a barrel to extract malmgreen said it s not unusual for a stripper well to cost dlrs malmgreen said many stripper wells along the southern california coast produce eight times as much water as  oil and inland wells frequently require the use of steam injection to spur extraction of the thick heavy oil he said the outlook for future production in california is clouded by a lack of exploratory drilling now analysts said in the heart of california s oil patch kern county which produces about two thirds of the state s oil exploratory drilling has slowed to a crawl only exploratory wells were drilled in kern county in compared to in according to david mitchell of the state energy commission so far this year only five exploratory wells have been drilled i don t think they ll even get to what they did last year mitchell said no pickup in exploratory drilling is likely for the rest of the decade mitchell said along with the fall in drilling has come a decrease in the number of producing wells and overall production between february and october of the number of producing oil wells in california fell pct to from more than said bill guerard of the california energy commission in line with that decrease california s  oil output fell about pct last year due to low oil prices and is expected to remain at that lower level analysts said between february and october california s  oil production slipped from an all time high of mln barrels per day to mln bpd guerard said total estimated  oil production in california for was mln bbls compared with mln bbls in and mln bbl in according to the california department of conservation production in will probably hold around levels guerard said reuter 
