The deep gas play going on in Kern County around Lost Hills and other areas has recently gotten national attention as a potential important new resource for large reserves of natural gas, especially because it is in the center of the state that is the largest user of natural gas in the U.S. California is currently producing only 15 percent of its needs of natural gas and this has led to the recent spike in natural gas prices and electrical prices.
Natural gas is the fuel of choice for new electrical generating plants.
We need to find and produce more gas in California to avoid these serious high gas and electrical prices. The industry rule of thumb for defining deep gas is a drilling depth of 15,000 feet or more. The average depth of gas production in the past would be about 5,000 feet, depending upon the area and is a relative figure. Some U.S. gas basins such as the Delaware of West Texas have produced gas from below 20,000 feet for some time, but California's gas production has historically come from 3,000-7,000 feet. The main onshore basins for deep gas exploration are what the oil industry calls the Mid-continent basins in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arkansas and Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.