Inglewood Oil Field

Road Tripping USA – Episode 8

Inglewood Oil Field: A Fossil Relic in the Heart of Los Angeles

The Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles is the largest urban oil field in the United States – more than 400 hectares in size, over 1,000 wells, and nearly 400 million barrels of oil extracted since 1924. Even today, hundreds of pumpjacks still work here, surrounded by neighborhoods like Culver City, Baldwin Hills, and Ladera Heights. All of it right in the middle of metropolitan Los Angeles.

I entered through Blair Hills, a small residential area east of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. At the time, I was actually searching for a sunset spot – a little personal mission during my stay in L.A.: finding the best views of the city. From up there, you can see Downtown, the hills, the ocean – and also this strangely out-of-place piece of industry.

I circled the fence for a while until I found a spot where a fallen tree had crushed the barbed wire. Perfect. A loophole. Moments later, I stood among rusty pumps and groaning pipelines – like a film set someone had forgotten to take down.

The scene felt absurd: rusty oil rigs in the glow of the sunset, framed by palm trees and Californian scrubland. A setting half steampunk romanticism, half post-industrial wasteland. A place that looked as if someone had accidentally left it standing in the middle of a metropolis of millions.

History and Controversy

The field was discovered in 1924 and heavily exploited for decades. Today it still produces around 2.5 to 3 million barrels per year. For a long time, the site stood as both a symbol of the American oil industry – and of its darker sides. Above all, fracking methods sparked protests: risks to groundwater, air quality, public health, and an increased earthquake risk made headlines.

After years of lawsuits, opposition, and scientific studies, the City of Los Angeles finally decided in 2022 to gradually shut down the Inglewood Oil Field – along with all other urban drilling operations. A historic step, after almost one hundred years of oil extraction in the heart of the city.

A Contrast Like Los Angeles Itself

For me, this place remains above all one thing: an image of the extremes that define Los Angeles. On the one hand, the dreamscapes of Hollywood, the beaches, the palm trees – on the other, the pumpjacks, the methane flares, the dust. Beauty and destruction, shine and decay, side by side.

Perhaps this is exactly what makes L.A. so fascinating: the sudden ruptures, the sharp transitions, the constant contrasts. And the sunset over the Inglewood Oil Field was one of those moments when the city revealed itself in all its contradictory intensity.