URBAN CRUDE: The Oil Fields of the Los Angeles Basin
The fabric of Los Angeles, a continuous cloth of development draped on top of the land, is shallow, but its roots, thousands of meandering straws of oil, go deep into the ground. Like the roots of a petroleum forest, these veins extract the juice of Jurassic rot that fueled this city of the car. In the mid-1920s, Los Angeles was the largest oil exporting region in the world, and production peaked in 1969. Today, oil extraction from the dozens of named underground oil fields in the LA region continues, though the thick locally produced crude is now used to make asphalt and tar products, not gasoline. In Los Angeles, an urbanized oilfield, the industry operates primarily in cracks, corners, and edges, hidden behind fences, and camouflaged into architecture, pulling oil out from thousands of feet, under our feet.
2009–2010 CLUI Research Project
View slideshows of oil in Los Angeles:
URBAN CRUDE: WESTSIDE & DOWNTOWN
URBAN CRUDE: COAST & SOUTH BAY
URBAN CRUDE: HARBOR & LONG BEACH
URBAN CRUDE: SOUTH COAST
URBAN CRUDE: EASTERN & INLAND
URBAN CRUDE: INGLEWOOD
URBAN CRUDE: REFINERIES