California Resources Corp. To Add Santa Clarita Valley Office

California Resources Corp., which was formally owned by Occidental Petroleum, is announcing the move Monday.

“It’s going to be on Tourney Road,” said Holly Schroeder, executive director of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp., which worked to facilitate the company’s relocation. “They’re taking 21,000 square feet (of commercial office space).”

The Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp. helps attract and retain business in the Santa Clarita Valley, among its other objectives.

An oil and gas exploration company is moving its production technology office to Santa Clarita, officials said Monday.

The company is “an oil and gas exploration and production company operating properties exclusively in the state of California,” according to its website. “CRC explores for, produces, gathers, processes and markets crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.”

“Santa Clarita is a great city and has a wonderful history of supporting jobs,” said Todd Stevens, CEO of CRC. “The oil and gas industry has created around 49,000 jobs in Los Angeles alone. Currently, California imports over 90 percent of its natural gas and 60 percent of its oil needs. We at California Resources Corp. are proud to provide Californians with local, affordable, secure and reliable energy that drives the Golden State’s economic engine.”

The move expects to bring about 35-40 employees from Westwood. The headquarters is moving to Chatsworth.

The Technology Product Office basically consists of geo-scientists and engineers, said Margita Thompson, spokeswoman for CRC.

“It’s about bringing cutting edge technology for our subsurface and above ground work that we use in our industry,” Thompson said, adding that the move is expected to take place by the beginning of May.

CRC is California’s largest independent oil and natural gas producer, with 5,000 employees and contractors. The company issued its IPO last year.

“These are high quality operations and technology jobs,” Schroeder said. “We’ve met with their leadership multiple times and some of their leadership lives here and are already engaged in the community — we’re excited to have them as part of our valley.”

CRC is “focused on high-growth, high-return conventional and unconventional assets exclusively in California,” according to the business’ site.

CRC expects to drive strong production growth through capital investment and application of modern technologies in our leading mineral acreage position and diverse portfolio.

The company is looking to see how it can expand its California resources, which is a burgeoning market for the California-based business.

The company specializes in applying advanced technology to boost production and access hard-to-recover reserves. CRC is committed to ensuring safety and protecting the environment everywhere it operates.

CRC has a large portfolio of lower-risk, high-growth conventional opportunities in each of California’s four major oil and gas basins: Sacramento, San Joaquin, Ventura and Los Angeles, according to its website.

According to CNN:

Institutional investors hold a majority ownership of CRC through the 78.12% of the outstanding shares that they control. This interest is also higher than at almost any other company in the Oil & Gas Production industry. Last, during the quarter ended December 2014, these large investors purchased a net $293.9 million shares.