California Resources Corp., which was recently spun off from Occidental Petroleum Corp., has put its plans for a major well drilling project in Carson on hold because of low oil prices.
The company, which had been planning to drill up to 200 wells in the northeast corner of the city over a 15-year period, withdrew its application for approval.
The California Department of Conservation (DOC) released a Draft Environmental Impact Report on Jan. 14 regarding the use of oil and gas well stimulation treatments in California.
This began a 62-day public comment period, which will include six meetings around the state in February. Written comments must be submitted by March 16.
State Oil and Gas Supervisor Dr. Steven Bohlen said the draft EIR “finds that most of the significant environmental impacts identified can be reduced to the level of ‘less-than-significant,’ including potential impacts to groundwater and surface water, as well as the threat of seismic activity.”
Scientists from the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) and Berkeley’s Lawrence National Laboratory released the first volume of an independent scientific assessment of well stimulation in California, including hydraulic fracturing.
Among its findings: fracked wells in California tend to be shallower and more vertical than in many other states, resulting in the use of less water but more concentrated chemicals.
The report, titled “An Independent Scientific Assessment of Well Stimulation Technologies in California: Well Stimulation Technologies and their Past, Present, and Potential Future Use in California”, was commissioned by the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) pursuant to Senate Bill 4.
It is available on the CCST website.
Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) announced a significant oil discovery at the Anchor prospect in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Anchor is the second discovery in the deepwater Gulf for San Ramon-based Chevron in less than a year.
“The Anchor discovery, along with the previously announced Guadalupe discovery, are significant finds for us in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico,” said Jay Johnson, senior vice president, Upstream, Chevron Corporation.
The Office of Administrative Law (OAL) filed final proposed SB4 regulations on well stimulation treatments with the Office of the Secretary of State on Dec. 30, 2014. The regulations become effective on July 1, 2015.
The regulations and related documents are posted on the DOGGR (the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources) website.
The posted documents include the final text of regulations approved by OAL, the Well Stimulation Treatment Neighbor Notification Form, the OAL Notice of Approval, an Updated Informative Digest, and a Final Statement of Reasons for adoption of the regulations.
The Supreme Court settled a nearly 70-year-old dispute on Monday, Dec. 15, about the undersea boundary between California and federal territory. The ruling will help resolve conflicting claims over oil and gas leases and prevent future litigation, federal and state officials said.
The issue had its origins in 1945, when California issued oil leases on undersea land near Long Beach. President Harry Truman declared that all submerged lands belong to the federal government. In 1947 the Supreme Court agreed, and federal officials sued California.
Congress attempted to resolve the conflict with a law that said states owned land up to three miles from their coasts, but the legislation did not set the precise location of that undersea border.
In Monday’s ruling the Supreme Court set the boundary in the form of 100 pages of map coordinates.
