Hathaway LLC

With a $5,000 loan from his mother, Chad Hathaway leased six oil wells from the state in 2001 that were orphaned by small producers bankrupted when oil prices plunged in the mid-1980s.

The first year, production averaged about eight barrels a day.

As oil prices rose over the next few years, the 31-year-old was able to expand. The company now has more than 40 wells in northern Kern County and pumps 180 barrels a day. Annual revenue for Hathaway LLC is expected to jump from more than $1 million last year to more than $5 million this year.

In addition to climbing oil prices, Hathaway credits his success to the Big West of California refinery.

"Big West creates a market for our crude oil," Hathaway said. "There’s very few buyers in Kern County and having that refinery available to us gives us little guys some options."



Oil industry officials say small producers like Hathaway rely on Big West and that the expansion would benefit the local economy and consumers, too.

Almost all the additional 1.2 million gallons of gasoline and diesel produced each day would be sold in the Central Valley, refinery officials said. That’s close to what fuel trucks are delivering to Kern County from other parts of the state.

In many ways the increase in local production should stabilize prices at the pump, said Mark Del Papa, a regional fueling company based in Bakersfield.

Using local gas cuts out the cost of bringing it here. The benefits also come in increased supply.

Now, gas produced by California refineries is almost equal to demand for it, Del Papa said. Supply interruptions from a refinery shutdown or fuel distribution problem can spike prices.

Since gas produced in neighboring Nevada, for example, doesn’t meet state clean fuel standards, fuel must be imported from places like Finland or the Caribbean — which takes time and comes at a higher cost.

Project opponents need to consider that, Del Papa said.

"We live in a world where people like their cars but they don't like refineries in their back yard,” he said. “You can't have your cake and eat it, too."

The expansion would create 100 new jobs at the facility paying an average of $70,000 a year plus an average 700 jobs during the two-year construction period, refinery officials said. It would also double the facility’s property tax payouts to $3 million a year, meaning more money for schools and county services, proponents say.