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Aliso Canyon Oil Field

oil field in Los Angeles County, California

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ23016618 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Aliso Canyon Oil Field (also Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Field, Aliso Canyon Underground Storage Facility) is an oil field and natural gas storage facility in the Santa Susana Mountains in Los Angeles County, California, north of the Porter Ranch neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles. Discovered in 1938 and quickly developed afterward, the field peaked as an oil producer in the 1950s, but has remained active since its discovery. One of its depleted oil and gas producing formations, the Sesnon-Frew zone, was converted into a gas storage reservoir in 1973 by the Southern California Gas Company, the gas utility servicing the southern half of California. This reservoir is the second-largest natural gas storage site in the western United States, originally with a capacity of over 86 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas. Currently it is one of four gas storage facilities owned by Southern California Gas, the others being the La Goleta Gas Field west of Santa Barbara, Honor Rancho near Newhall, and Playa del Rey.

Oil production on the field continues from 32 active wells as of 2016. By 2023, the gas storage reservoir has 68 Bcf capacity, and is accessed through 115 gas injection wells, along with approximately 38 miles of pipeline internal to the field. Three operators were active on the field: Southern California Gas Company, The Termo Company, and Crimson Resource Management Corp.

Geographic setting

The field is on the southern slope of the Santa Susana Mountains, an east-west trending range dividing the San Fernando Valley on the south from the Santa Clarita Valley on the north-northeast. With some of its productive wells set at an elevation over 3,000 feet, it is one of the highest and most rugged oil fields in California.

Editorial summary

“Aliso Canyon Oil Field” enters the record as oil field in Los Angeles County, California. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Aliso, Canyon and Field can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1938, 1973, 2016, 2023—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Aliso, Canyon and Field.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Aliso Canyon Oil Field” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Aliso, Canyon and Field provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23016618. Authority coordinates are 34.315, -118.564. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1973, 2016 and 2023.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Aliso Canyon Oil Field”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Aliso Canyon Oil Field primary sources, Aliso Canyon Oil Field archive and Aliso research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Aliso Canyon Oil Field”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Aliso Canyon Oil Field” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.