[crusty old prospector]

Not knowing what has been done to date, my only advice would be to get away from all the producing fields and the strike-slip faults to some nice ram pasture. Find some old vertical wells with either mud log shows or production tests of the right gravity oil and GOR. Find cuttings from the wells and test them for maturity. Make sure they have a vitrinite reflectance of at least 0.8 but not greater than 1.1, which is usually around 10,000' deep. Drill around a 5,000’ lateral and call out Dr. Fracenstein to do his dirty work.

[Smokin' Joe]

How much do you think tectonic forces may have contributed to thermal maturity? In the Bakken we’re generally somewhere between 9000 and 11000 ft., but there just hasn’t been the amount of deformational influence I’d expect in the Monterey. Heat flow might be a bit different, there, too. As a result, I’d expect the sweet spot to be a mite shallower.