Occidental’s $3.5 billion acquisition in 1998 of the U.S. government’s 78-percent interest in the Elk Hills oil and gas field has been an excellent investment. This former Naval Petroleum Reserve, set aside in 1911 to ensure fuel supplies for the U.S. Navy, is the seventh largest oil field in the continental United States, with cumulative production exceeding 1 billion barrels of oil and 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The Elk Hills acquisition made Occidental the largest natural gas producer and the third largest oil producer in the state.
-From the Occidental Petroleum web site