In California's tiny, barren Cuyama Valley, more than a dozen companies had probed for oil, hit nothing but dusters. Only Los Angeles' aggressive Richfield Oil Corp. kept on drilling because, as one Richfield executive put it, "our geologists couldn't prove there wasn't oil." There was. Richfield struck its first oil last winter. Last week the company brought in its third well, an 8,000-to-10,000-barrel-a-day gusher that was "choked" down to 600 barrels a day. But it "proved up" the field and made the Cuyama strike the richest in California in ten years.
Pitched Tents. The oil rush was on. Texas Co., Humble Oil & Refining Co., Barnsdall Oil Co. and a score of other companies had moved into the field. As far as land was concerned, they had to take Richfield's leavings. Richfield had shrewdly bought leases before its first well came in, now controlled 150,000 acres of land.
By last week the San Luis Obispo road —the valley's only outlet—was jammed with trucks carrying oil to the coast, and pipe and rigs back into Cuyama. Each day brought in new hopefuls who pitched tents, built rickety lean-tos, rigged up their equipment with floodlights for around-the-clock drilling. To carry away the oil, Richfield was laying a 35-mile, 6-inch pipeline to connect with a bigger one that ran to Los Angeles County. Richfield has given the contractor ten days to complete the line.
Quick Turnover. Though the oil strike had turned the peaceful valley into a raucous wildcatters' camp, Cuyama's settlers (30-odd families) had no complaints. Postmaster Eugene Stutz sold his filling station and 13 acres for $125,000 and half interest in any oil found.
But one of the biggest and quickest profits was made by James Travers, an 82-year-old ex-newspaperman and wildcatter, who last year had quietly bought the oil rights to 7,000 acres. He had already sold the rights to 1,000 acres for $200,000 cash and $400,000 in oil.
The strike is the latest success in a remarkable comeback. Once a bankrupt, squabble-ridden company, control of Richfield was bought in 1936 by Oilman Harry F. Sinclair and the Cities Service Co. Under Sinclair, as chairman, it went after new oil leases, built up its known oil reserves from 25,000,000 barrels in 1937 to 220,000,000 last year. Investors were betting that its reserves had just begun to climb. In the last two months its stock went from 25 to 44⅞.