Reporter’s Notebook: Our day with Signal Hill Petroleum

Members of the Signal Tribune staff went on a field trip to multiple sites of Signal Hill Petroleum’s operations. 

In Signal Hill, residents often pass by operating oil pumps and abandoned wells on their way to the store, school and work without giving it a second thought. The city has come a long way from its “sleepy oil town” roots over the past 100 years, and Signal Hill Petroleum has become increasingly intertwined with its history, and future, over its 40 years in operation. 

Over the last year, we’ve covered the company’s proposed 20-year permit renewal for new and re-drilled oil sites along with local activists trying to stop them from doing just that. Each time, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President David Slater answered all my questions, and each time, he was eager to invite our staff to see how the sausage gets made. 

On Dec. 5, we embarked on that journey, equipped with Signal Hill Petroleum “100% organic crude” stamped hard hats, a notebook, a camera and a voice recorder among the three of us. 

Signal Hill Petroleum Chief Operating Officer David Slater stands alongside a statute dedicated to the Long Beach and Signal Hill oil workers that is near Hilltop Park in Signal Hill on Dec. 5, 2023. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

“The public lives in the oil field,” Slater said as we traveled through Signal Hill, passing by the scattered oil pumps, wells and facilities. 

Our first stop took us to a well and central drill site within the Signal Hill Gateway Center, a 24-acre shopping center that Signal Hill Petroleum built. Residents can visit the Ross, Home Depot, Petco and more and never know that it once was an oil field, or that the drills still sitting on the site are extracting oil from 5,000 feet underground. 

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Signal Hill Petroleum, David Slater, explains how the oil pumps located within the parking lot of Ross and The Home Depot in Signal Hill work on Dec. 5, 2023. Signal Hill Petroleum developed the shopping center that surrounds the oil drills, along with several other commercial and real estate developments in the city. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
Signal Hill Petroleum Chief Operating Officer David Slater explains to journalists from the Signal Tribune how the oil drills located within the parking lot of Ross and The Home Depot in Signal Hill work on Dec. 5, 2023. The drills on this site go 5,000 feet underground, and the company uses lithium ion-powered tools to detect vibrations down to the millisecond, telling the company how much life is left in the wells. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

Signal Hill has the highest oil recovery per surface acre in the world, Slater said. 

We are then taken to the West Unit Facility on 29th Street, where the gas is separated from water and other elements to make oil, then kept in storage tanks. Slater is pleased to show us the technology they use at this site and the six other sites to monitor micro leaks and air quality. 

A view of some of the machinery that is used to pump and separate water, oil and natural gas that is harvested in the Long Beach Oil Field by Signal Hill Petroleum on Dec. 5, 2023. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

The company has three FLIR thermal imaging cameras at $100,000 a pop (more than their regulators have, Slater says), which are manned by three full-time employees. Their one and only job, he says, is to visit SHP facilities and well sites weekly and scan for micro leaks from every screw, valve and over 75,000 other components. 

Signal Hill Petroleum Chief Operating Officer David Slater shows a FLIR thermal imaging camera that is used by the crew to look for micro leaks in the wells and stations that Signal Hill Petroleum operates on Dec. 5, 2023. The company has three people whose full-time job is to visit each site throughout the week and scan over 75,000 components with the FLIR camera. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
Signal Hill Petroleum Chief Operating Officer David Slater points to different monitoring devices displayed on a screen that tracks possible micro leaks and the air quality surrounding the oil wells and pumps on Dec. 5, 2023. Slater explained that the air quality is above State standards while the freeway a few feet away experiences low traffic, and the air quality worsens when traffic increases. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

John, who supervises all the sites, is there to show us their air monitoring technology. John says their solar-powered monitors can detect if a truck is sitting idle on the neighboring street through emissions. Slater says although the company is regulated by over 20 state and federal boards, they often look to Signal Hill Petroleum’s practices to set the standard. 

When we climb out of the vans and onto the last stop, it’s clear why they saved the Central Unit facility for last. Workers climbed like ants along a towering oil drill, and the loud machinery noises created a stark contrast from the surrounding wall of trees. The site includes a fluid dehydration plant, a water injection plant, one active well and an electrical substation. 

Workers with Signal Hill Petroleum lower a drill into a well at their Central Unit facility along the east side of Signal Hill on Dec. 5, 2023. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

Drilling Coordinator Pat Hurley takes us inside the small substation to see the screens that are set to communicate with the ant-like workers, sending messages from worker to machine to substation and back around. Hurley reminds us multiple times to not touch anything, and Slater later tells us we’re the first tour group to see inside of the substation in a long time. 

Drilling Coordinator for Signal Hill Petroleum, Pat Hurley, looks through display readouts in a server room that monitors the drilling activity of one of the wells on the east side of Signal Hill on Dec. 5, 2023. The readouts in this control room communicate directly with the workers and machines outdoors in the Central Unit facility. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
Signal Hill Petroleum Chief Operating Officer David Slater looks out over the view of Long Beach from near the top Signal Hill on Dec. 5, 2023. Just below are homes that have been built on the hill, many of which sit on top of depleted well or have active wells just next door. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)

Just outside the Central Unit are million-dollar homes scattered upon the hill. The company deploys people to conduct daily “walkabouts” to make sure the operations at the site remain in the distant background, unlikely to be noticed. 

“People don’t like truck traffic, odor and noise. That’s our bible we live by,” Slater said. 

This article was updated on Jan. 16 to correct the number of oil wells in the city and the proposed permit renewal timeframe. The Signal Tribune regrets these errors.

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