Download Whitepaper
(Craig Barto, President, and Chief Executive Officer being awarded the “Golden Kettle” award by the Salvation Army)
Yesterday afternoon Signal Hill Petroleum was honored to receive the “Golden Kettle” award presented by the Salvation Army at the Kettle Kick-Off luncheon. On behalf of Jerrel and Janice Barto, the founders of Signal Hill Petroleum, SHP was able to donate $25,000 to the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is a nonprofit organization that’s mission is to meet human needs without discrimination. They started in 1865 and they serve in 130 countries across the globe. Each year they help 23 million Americans and continuously provide for the less fortunate.
Craig Barto received the award at the luncheon on behalf of Signal Hill Petroleum. Signal Hill Petroleum is extremely proud to donate to an organization with such a positive mission.
Craig Barto, SHP’s president was recognized as one of the Ronald McDonald House’s “A Few Good Men”
Yesterday evening, our very own Craig Barto, President, and Chief Executive Officer, was recognized as one of the “A Few Good Men” for the Ronald McDonald Houses’ 6th annual gala. Craig, along with 11 other gentlemen, were honored for all they have generously contributed to their communities.
The beautiful evening started with a red-carpet entrance, reception, and silent auction. As the program began, each honoree participated in a fashion show which was the highlight of the night. The evening ended with a live auction of packages donated from all the honorees. It was a truly unforgettable night!
Craig Barto is co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Signal Hill Petroleum, Inc. He has more than 40 years’ experience in the oil industry. Craig is an active advocate for the responsible production of America’s oil and gas resources. He is very supportive of the community in which Signal Hill Petroleum, Inc. operates and he and his employees work with a number of local nonprofit organizations such as Partners in Excellence which raises funds for Long Beach Memorial and Miller Children’s Hospital, Salvation Army, Long Beach Police Foundation, Signal Hill Movies in the Park, UCLA Centennial Foundation, Pretend City Children’s Museum, CHOC and is a significant contributor to Cal State Long Beach.
Signal Hill Petroleum is incredibly proud to have Craig Barto as a leader of the company. This award is a great way to recognize all that he does for not only the company, but the community as well! Congratulations on a well-deserved award.
SHP was featured on the cover of the Long Beach Business Journal for the recent 2014 Oil and Gas E&P Company of the Year award. Read the following excerpt from the Long Beach Business Journal’s November 11-24, 2014 issue to see why they dubbed Signal Hill Petroleum “#1 On West Coast”.
#1 On West Coast – Signal Hill Petroleum Names Top Exploration/Production Company
Pictured near one of their drilling sites with Signal Hill Petroleum President and CEO Craig Barto, center, are David Slater, left, the firm’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, and Kevin Laney, vice president of rig operations for the company. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Thomas McConville)
Long Beach Business Journal – November 11-24, 2014
By Michael Gougis, Contributing Writer
Beautiful, high-end condominiums with a view of blue-green Pacific Ocean waters and crude oil drilling and pumping rigs would seem to go together like – well, water and oil.
But not only has Signal Hill Petroleum managed to look for, ding and extract thousands of barrels of crude oil a day in such a challenging environment, it has performed the task so well that it was named the TEEMCO E&P Company of the Year for 2014 at the recent West Coast Oil And Gas awards ceremony.
“A lot of people in the industry thought this field was dead,” says David Slater, executive vice president and CEO of Signal Hill Petroleum. “But it’s a huge remaining resource. It took technology to economically unlock it.”
A combination of cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned public relations outreach has allowed the company to flourish in a potentially difficult environment, said the judges who awarded the firm the Exploration & Production Company of the Year award.
“Through use of sustainability programs, innovative exploration and extraction techniques, environmental/emission controls and community enhancement programs, the company appears to be able to work very successfully in an urban environment where other companies may struggle,” the judges said.
Founded in 1984, the company started with the acquisition of Shell’s assets on Signal Hill. Shell was repositioning in oil extraction operations elsewhere, and had put the Signal Hill assets up for sale. The field actually was owned by three large companies – Shell, ARCO and Texaco – and Signal Hill Petroleum spent the next two decades consolidating those properties into a single company.
“It was a very, very major accomplishment to aggregate ownership,” Slater says. “What that did was open the economic possibility of applying technology and doing a lot of things that had not been done before because of the fragmented ownership.
As a more mature asset, the field relies on salt water injection to make the field productive, Slater says. Salt water injection is done “to re-pressurize it (the underground reserves) and mobilize the remaining oil,” he says.
But drilling injection wells and extraction wells accurately relies on a thorough, detailed understanding of the subsurface soil formations. The high-end technology used by the company involves the three-dimensional mapping of the sub-strata in a way that Signal Hill Petroleum helped develop, a method of subsurface imaging that met the needs of an oil producing company trying to work in an urban environment.
Traditional three-dimensional imaging “is not very urban-friendly.” Slater says. “Lots of equipment, lots of cable.” Basically, the process relies on thousands of sensors that detect minute vibrations – but those sensors had to be connected together via cables. Signal Hill Petroleum began working with a company that was developing a system that collected the data wirelessly. When the wireless data gathering was perfected, Signal Hill Petroleum became the first oil company in the world to put such a system into field operation.
What the data shows the company “is how the earth is cracked and bent. It’s similar to what people who study earthquakes are interested in,” Slater says. The data has, in fact, been shared with institutions and universities across the nation. And it has given the company a clearer view of the cracks, bends and folds of the earth’s crust – data that the company uses to drill for crude. It has worked so well that the company actually is drilling new wells in the field – the first new wells in decades.
Currently, the company operates about 450 wells and produces about 3,500 barrels per day. And it does so largely in harmony with its neighbors. Debra Montalvo Russell, director of community relations, says Signal Hill Petroleum is a visible, accessible member of the community, and that helps maintain positive relations with the people who live and work near the company’s operations.
“We are out there so much, and we are giving information, and we are so accessible,” she says. “The difference about our company is that we put a face to the name,” she says. “Most of our employees are local residents. They are faces that people will recognize in the store, in the community. So people know and trust us. We’re here as members of the community.”
“We work really hard to be transparent, to be face-t-face, to provide real information, to open the gates,” Slater says. “Come on in and take a look – we’ll show you what we do and how we do it.”
Click here to read digital copy
LONG BEACH, CA – Wednesday, October 29, 2014 – Signal Hill Petroleum, Inc. (SHP), a leading producer of sustainable oil and gas based in Signal Hill, CA, announced that it has won the TEEMCO E&P Company of the Year Award at the 2014 West Coast Oil and Gas Awards, held in Bakersfield, CA on Tuesday, October 21. SHP won the award for demonstrating impressive operational performance, commercial success, shown efforts to minimize any environmental impact and outstanding CSR initiatives.
“It’s an incredible honor to accept the TEEMCO E&P Company of the Year Award on behalf of Signal Hill Petroleum,” said SHP President and CEO Craig Barto. “I’d like to thank the dedicated employees of Signal Hill Petroleum for their commitment to sustainability, community, and technology-driven innovation that have brought us to where we are today.”
Signal Hill Petroleum scored the most points in the category with such comments from the judging panel as:
“Very impressive internal and external programs – community involvement and development and graduate education support for professionals. Made great strides in operating in an urban environment.”
“Signal Hill’s commitment to the communities in which the company operates is what sets it apart. Through use of sustainability programs, innovative exploration and extraction techniques, environmental/emission controls and community enhancement programs, the company appears to be able to work very successfully in an urban environment where other companies may struggle.”
An innovator in the area of urban oil operations, Signal Hill Petroleum owns and operates approximately 95% of the wells in the Long Beach/Signal Hill Oilfield. During its three decades of operation, Signal Hill Petroleum has developed a unique expertise not only in urban oil and gas production operations, but also in urban drilling and seismic exploration.
About Signal Hill Petroleum
Signal Hill Petroleum is a privately owned California-based energy company that specializes in the exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas in urban areas. With a set of core values rooted in a transparent business philosophy, honest approach, and concern for the environment, the company strives to be an excellent neighbor and community partner.
About The Oil And Gas Awards
The Oil and Gas Awards recognize and reward advancements made by the oil and gas industry in the areas of environmental stewardship, efficiency, innovation, corporate social responsibility and health and safety. Winners were announced at the inaugural 2014 West Coast Oil and Gas Gala Event at the Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center. A panel of 110 industry executives judged the West Coast Oil & Gas Awards with over 120 companies participating across multiple categories.
Pictured From Left: SHP Land Manager Sarah Bobbe, SHP Community Relations Specialist Stefanie Gillett, SHP Director of Community Relations and Business Development Debra Montalvo Russell and SHP President and CEO Craig Barto accept the TEEMCO E&P Company of the Year Award at the 2014 Oil & Gas Awards
The Long Beach Grunion Gazette summarized the thirty year history of Signal Hill Petroleum, with its grassroots beginning to its current leading stance in technology and community outreach.
The following is an excerpt from the August 7, 2014 Grunion Gazette Newspaper.
Photo courtesy of Long Beach Grunion Gazette: OIL & GAS ENTREPRENEURS. Craig Barto, Debra Montalvo Russell and David Slater stand by the Signal Hill Petroleum office
Signal Hill Petroleum Pumps Into 30th Year
Grunion Gazette, August 7, 2014
By Ashleigh Ruhl Editor
When father and son real estate developers Jerry Barto and Craig Barto purchased a piece of land in Costa Mesa in 1979, their intention was to build condos there.
Instead, they wound up in the oil and gas business.
“We just sort of fell into it,” Craig Barto said, adding that he and his father hired the best people they could to teach them all about oil and gas. “Oil prices spiked upwards, so instead of building condos, we ended up drilling 12 wells – years later, we did build homes there too.”
Soon after that Costa Mesa purchase, when Shell’s lands and leases in Signal Hill were put up for sale in 1982, the father and son owners of Barto Oil Company saw an opportunity that others didn’t. They made the purchase, for an undisclosed amount, and formed Signal Hill Petroleum in 1984; the company is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
“It was a big deal, an icon (Shell) coming up for sale,” Craig Barto explained. “At that time, the 100 acres was mostly not developed, and we looked at it as an oil field as well as a real estate opportunity; whereas, others didn’t look at the property, didn’t look at this urban area as a positive thing, they saw it as a negative.”
They decided to find a way to integrate their background in real estate development into the business model, even though no one had done such a thing before. They wanted their drilling operations – which now include 400 wells and the 90-year-old Discovery Well – to be good, close neighbors with Long Beach and Signal Hill residents and business.
“Shell was focused on offshore projects, and they left this tremendous asset,” Craig Barto said. “Today, we’re producing one million barrels a year and employ 165 people… This spot, Signal Hill, has th most oil per acre, or square foot, than anywhere in the world.”
He added; “We are proud to be a local producer of oil, providing jobs in our communities and strengthening the American economy as a whole. It’s very important for our company in both the long and short term to keep growing, to be a better company, and to be the best neighbor we can be. We are proud to be helping America be more energy independent.”
Dave Slater, who serves as the executive vice president and COO for the privately-owned company, shared similar sentiments. He explained that Signal Hill Petroleum owns 95% of the wells in the Long Beach/Signal Hill Oilfield, which is one of 28 super fields in the continental United States.
“It’s always been an urban field with no fence around it,” Slater said. “That’s not always easy, but we’ve learned by necessity how our workplace can be someone else’s backyard or next door neighbor.”
What sets Signal Hill Petroleum apart from other energy companies, he said, is the company’s commitment to the community and to pioneering new technology – such as the first three-dimensional imaging system that wirelessly measure underground oil levels and seismic activity – as well as hiring innovative employees who find ways to effectively operate in close proximity to homes and businesses in a way that is unprecedented in the industry.
Other energy companies have tried to copy what Signal Hill Petroleum has done, but Slater said none have had the same success. He emphasizes that Signal Hill Petroleum’s best assets are the people who work there, not the minerals in the ground.
One such employee is Debra Montalvo Russell, the director of business development and community relations. She is charged with helping Signal Hill Petroleum give back. For the philanthropic work done by the company, Signal Hill Petroleum was named the 2013 winner of the Oil & Gas Award in Corporate Social Responsibility, among other honors.
Montalvo Russell said Signal Hill Petroleum helps causes that touch the hearts of the employees there. That ranges from preserving the Los Cerritos Wetlands to sponsoring summer concert and movie series to working with local police officers to deliver holiday gifts to the needy, among other causes. The company also supports the geoscience laboratory at CSULB.
“We like to invest in our backyard, in cases that we can feel good about,” Slater said, noting a large bookshelf full of thank you notes and thank you plaques displayed at the entrance to the company’s Signal Hill offices.
“Working so close to homes and businesses, it’s important that we are neighbor-friendly and involved in the community, which is our workplace,” Barto said. “Through our employees – from top, down – we stress the importance for all of us to be good neighbors.”
For more details about Signal Hill Petroleum, including a timeline of the company’s past 30 years, visit www.shpi.net.
Ashleigh Ruhl can be reached at aruhl@gazettes.com