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WASHINGTON. March 31 The California oil field that President Ford visited today is the center of a political storm that is gathering on Capitol Hill.

The central issue, the one Mr. Ford sought to dramatize with his brief visit to Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1, is whether, as the Administration contends, the time has come to make use of the oil in the Navy’s four reserves—to produce it for sale or storage or both.

Although not free to say so publicly, the Navy opposes production from the reserves, which professional Navy men regard as their reightful patrimony. The first reserve, known as Elk Hills, was created in 1912, ‘when the Navy was switching from coal to oil as the fuel beneath a ship’s boilers that made the steam that drove the turbines that turned the propellers that drive the ship.

A collateral issue is proving to be equally emotionally charged. It is whether producing from the reserve will necessarily strengthen the California market shares of the largest oil companies and, if so, what the Government should do to help smaller refiners.

Role of Standard Oil

A third issue is whether Standard Oil of California, which has a 20 per cent interest in the reserve, should be bought out by the Government, and at what price. Related speculation concerns the possibility that Standard would regard a decision to produce from the reserve as a contract violation that released it from a debt of $55million or more it owes the Navy.