Attorneys for several environmental groups have sued to block delivery of crude oil to a Bakersfield terminal in 100-car “unit trains,” claiming the deliveries would harm air quality and pose a danger to the public.
The lawsuit was filed against the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, the Bakersfield Crude Terminal and Plains All American Pipeline LP by the Sierra Club, Communities for a Better Environment, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups.
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.
