Lots of luck trying to get even a tiny portion out! There are many entrenched interests here who care more for keeping California as something more than a moonscape:
California has an estimated 15.4 billion barrels of crude oil beneath its fertile farmland - and now companies are scrambling to get their hands on it, putting the lush landscape in danger.
While the 'Monterey Shale' has long been believed to be under 1,750 square miles of central and southern California, technology is finally able to extract it, potentially sparking a huge oil boom.
...But amid the concerns, companies are staking their claim on the shale, quietly buying up mineral rights and carrying out tests across the state - all behind a veil of secrecy.
If companies can extract it, it will turn the state from the third biggest producer of oil to the first - as the Monterey Shale has four times as much oil as Texas, currently the biggest producer.
...But technological advances have now made extracting the Monterey Shale more likely, the New York Times reported, and old and new companies are swooping in to stake a claim.
Mineral rights to public lands are being sold by the Bureau of Land Management and plots have soared from $2 an acre to more than a thousand dollars each.
The successful bidders have 10 years to develop a working oil well on the land or the lease expires, NBC News explained. The government receives 12.5 per cent of revenues from the oil.
...'Our companies are not forthcoming on their business plans,' said Tupper Hull from the Western States Petroleum Association, which represents companies including Occidental and Venoco. 'These are pretty smart people, they're pretty good at what they do. They're pretty competitive out there.'
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