Oil Depletion in Los Angeles

From the LA Almanac is this charts of the Great Oil Fields of LA County. The first you notice is the last field to be discovered was about 80 years ago. Second is that the oil is gone, mostly gone, with the remaining wells dribbling oil at much less than gusher strength. There are some myopic sorts in the US who believe that the solution for their energy independence is "drill, baby drill". Will it is true that private mineral claim/public royalty systems lead to active prospecting than the statist economic systems that prevail in OPEC. All that means is that resources are found faster not that there are more resources to find.

Also check out this chart of declining oil production in LA.