Drilling is expected to stop by the end of the decade on a portion of the nation's largest urban oil field as part of Los Angeles County's larger push to halt oil and gas extraction at these sites and pursue redevelopment.
The city of Culver City and Sentinel Peak Resources, a Colorado-based driller, reached an agreement on Thursday to stop drilling and plug and abandon all oil and gas wells in the Culver City portion of the Inglewood Oil Field by 2029, according to a statement from the city.
The deal applies to roughly 78 acres of the around 1,000-acre Inglewood Oil Field. Drilling has occurred for nearly a century at the Inglewood Oil Field — even as the surrounding area has attracted thousands of homes and businesses.
The agreement opens up a portion of the drilling field for future redevelopment into residential, commercial and recreational uses in Culver City, an affluent Los Angeles County independent city roughly 10 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles, according to the statement.
It comes as cities in Los Angeles County and Los Angeles County itself are working on separate ordinances and agreements with drillers to halt oil and gas extraction in the nation's biggest county by population. Los Angeles County is in the process of stopping drilling at its portion of the Inglewood Oil Field.
"We look forward to the transformation of our hillside area away from oil uses and the future use of this area as an integral part of our Culver City community,” Culver City Mayor Albert Vera said in the statement.
A Sentinel Peak Resources representative didn't respond to an emailed request for comment from CoStar News.
Culver City's agreement comes after its city council passed an ordinance in October 2021 to stop drilling. The agreement between the city and driller comes after two years of negotiations, according to the statement.
The end of drilling at the entire Inglewood Oil Field would be a visible effort to stop oil and gas extraction. Opening the field up for redevelopment would represent a major real estate investment opportunity in one of the United States' densest areas. For perspective, one of the largest undeveloped sites in the city of Los Angeles that's now up for sale is 21 times smaller than the Inglewood Oil Field.