Texaco claims oil strike

There may be another giant oil field in the Santa Barbara Channel off the California coast.

The oil industry is abuzz over a new oil discovery announced June 24 by Texaco. What's being called the ''Hueso'' discovery (hueso is Spanish for ''bone'') is in federal waters, 12 miles off of Point Conception in California. Chevron announced a similar discovery in the same area last November. Both discoveries are in a ''wildcat'' (previously untested) area of the channel.

William Craig, of the brokerage house E.F. Hutton & Co., says drilling in the area is ''the most exciting thing going on in the oil industry today.'' Charles Maxwell, an analyst with Cyrus J. Lawrence Inc., another brokerage house, predicts the Texaco find could be a very large one.

Texaco's announcement was significant because the oil company announced the results of two wells, not just one. The first well had a flow rate of 4,200 barrels of oil a day. A second well, located more than a mile away, had a flow rate of 3,000 barrels a day. Texaco says it expects to bring the new field into production in three to four years. It's partners in the well are Pennzoil Company (25 percent), Sun Company (20 percent), and Koch Industries (20 percent).