The Los Angeles Basin, which has been the focus of intense oil and gas development activity for more than a century, still has a robust future, according to participants in a day-long conference hosted by the University of Southern California.

The November 12 forum was sponsored by the USC Energy Institute, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey.

A report distributed by the USGS estimates that 1.4 to 5.6 billion barrels of additional recoverable oil remain in 10 Los Angeles Basin fields analyzed by the agency’s staff, with a mean estimate of 3.2 billion barrels.