Oil Wells

They struck oil Monday at an apartment house in downtown Los Angeles. But residents were not in a celebratory mood. The black, tar-like substance that oozed into the basement of the three-story Iris Apartments forced authorities to red-tag the 99-year-old building and evacuate its 130 occupants. The 1200 block of South Olive Street was also shut down when its pavement suddenly began to bulge and the oily liquid bubbled from cracks and manhole covers.

Chevron Corp.'s Knotty Head discovery, the deepest well ever drilled in the Gulf of Mexico, holds about half as much oil and natural gas as originally estimated, said Nexen Inc., a partner in the project. The discovery, announced in December, probably holds the equivalent of 200 million to 500 million barrels of oil, less than an earlier estimate of 350 million to 1 billion, said a spokesman for Calgary, Canada-based Nexen.

British oil company BP will close 12 oil wells on the North Slope as a precaution after whistleblowers alleged more than 50 were leaking. The wells were being shut down Tuesday, BP spokesman Darren Beaudo said in Anchorage. The action came after workers allegedly told the Financial Times of London of the leaks. The newspaper first reported the shutdowns on its website. Most of the shuttered wells were in Prudhoe Bay, Beaudo told the Associated Press.

Deep beneath the Caribbean Sea lies an oil field so promising that it could reverse this country's six-year slide in petroleum production and ease its economic problems. But no one can get to the crude. A global shortage of oil-patch equipment has caused a two-year delay in plans by Petrobras to drill wells that would confirm early test results on the vast Tayrona field. The Brazilian company manages the site off Colombia's Caribbean coast.

A judge on Wednesday dismissed 12 lawsuits in a headline-making case brought by Erin Brockovich-Ellis' law firm against Beverly Hills and its school district, alleging that an oil well at Beverly Hills High School caused cancers in former students. Without explaining his decision, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Wendell Mortimer Jr. granted the request of Beverly Hills and other defendants to dismiss the lawsuits, saying he would issue a more detailed ruling within 25 days.

Proposition 87 is a foolish idea because it will increase the ratio of imported to domestic oil and the total amount of foreign oil we import ("Oil Giants Put Energy Into Other Resources," Oct. 8). Drive up Stocker Street in Windsor Hills, Freshman Drive in Culver City or Redondo Avenue in Long Beach and see a remarkable sight: oil wells. Unsightly they may be, but they have a hidden beauty, for they are neatly and quietly drawing from the earth a portion of the oil we Californians use every day. Proposition 87 would tax this oil produced by, for and in California, but it would not tax imported oil. As any freshman economics student can tell you, that would quickly result in less oil being produced here.

It's in the tank. Up in smoke. Biting the dust. The real estate market? No. The toxic substances in the water, air and dirt enveloping many Southern California properties. With leaky oil wells in backyards, solid-waste landfills near homes and abandoned meth labs in residential areas, it's a wonder Southland residents aren't neon. "California . . . has thousands of waste sites that were contaminated either by industrial, agricultural or past military uses," said Angela Blanchette, a spokeswoman for the California Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Ecuadorean troops took control of government buildings in two Amazon provinces and reinforced security at oil wells as they moved to quell protests that have slashed production and exports of crude, an officer said. State-owned Petroecuador usually exports 144,000 barrels a day, but its production has dropped to zero. Production by private firms has also plunged. Most of Ecuador's oil exports go to the United States.

They once ruled Southern California, staking claim to broad stretches of coastline and hillsides. Then, in the 1980s, they began vanishing -- driven from their native habitat by tract houses, mini-malls and pesky environmentalists. By the time gasoline prices barreled into the stratosphere this year, local oil wells had become the industrial equivalent of an endangered species. From a peak population of 33,000, they dwindled to about 4,000.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is investigating the possibility of criminal violations of environmental regulations in connection with an oil rig operating at Beverly Hills High School. The campus oil operation has been heavily scrutinized since February 2003, when environmental crusader Erin Brockovich and attorney Ed Masry said they were preparing to take legal action against the city of Beverly Hills, the Beverly Hills Unified School District and three oil companies.