President Ronald Reagan got the ball rolling to sell the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve near Bakersfield, Calif., to private interests 10 years ago. It was finally sold on February 5.

The transaction had to await the election of a Republican Congress, according to political observers. But preparations for the auction and the sale itself were textbook examples of how privatizations should be handled, they say.

Elk Hills had been purchased by the government in 1912 to provide oil for the U.S. Navy.

• But after being transferred to the Energy Department in 1977, production dropped from 144,000 barrels a day in 1981 to just 66,000 barrels daily in 1995 -- and costs were climbing out of control.

• Congress and the President agreed in 1996 to privatization and the Energy Department was assigned the task of preparing for the sale this year.

• Independent experts and advisers were brought in to evaluate the field and suggest a minimum acceptable bid.

• Bid openings took place last October and a sale-closing deadline was set for this February.

Out of 22 bidders, Occidental Petroleum won at $3.65 billion -- about twice the Congressional Budget Office's estimate of the field's value only a year before. More than $3 billion of that will go toward paying down the national debt.

Observers credit the successful sale to Congress for its detailed direction and the Energy Department for its methodical planning. The exercise should serve as a model for future privatizations -- such as those of the air traffic control system, federal housing finance, the U.S. Postal Service, Amtrak, prisons and military commissaries, among others.