McKittrick Oil Field the Teapot Dome Scandal of the Warren G. Harding administration; adjacent to the southwest is the Belgian Anticline Oil Field, along Route 58; and to the southeast is the huge Midway-Sunset Oil Field, the third largest oil field in the United States. The total productive area of the field is . The field is about long on the southeast to northwest axis, and about across. The predominant geologic feature, and the one that makes the McKittrick field distinctive, is the presence of a huge block of Monterey shale – more than long, approximately wide, and up to thick – which
History of the oil shale industry in the United States of its value, falling from US$3.50 at the start of 1921, to US$1.25 at year-end. Imported oil peaked at 127 million barrels in 1923, then dropped by more than half, to 62 million in 1925. The drop in oil price, and the increased production from new fields, put a damper on speculation that the US was about to run out of oil. Oil shale could not economically compete with petroleum priced below US$2 per barrel, especially given that the productive shale areas were far from major petroleum markets. Cheap petroleum prices had driven oil shale out of business. Some companies