State Regulator fines 30 Oil and gas operators

In early September 2015 the California Department of Conservation announced they were levying civil penalties of $4,500 on each of the 30 oil and gas operators who are active in the State and failed to report water usage as required under new rules from SB 1281. 

The full list of all 30 operators is posted below. 

While most of the operators are located in the Bakersfield area, three operate in Ventura County. 

1. Astarta Alexander Oil Company - operates about 22 wells in the Ojai Oil Field on the Astarta, Pyramid and Alexander leases. Including three active WD or disposal (injection) wells. Online well records show one of these injection wells was reported on in 1992 and injection fluids were "confined to strata below 700'."
2. Mirada Petroleum Inc. - based in Santa Paula with about 50 wells (includes active, idle and plugged) in the Ojai Oil Field, and Holser Oil Field in Val Verde. That count also includes several waste injection wells. 
   
3. Silver Exploration Company - operates 7 wells in the Ojai Oil Field. Two are idle, five active. All are oil and gas production wells. None of the wells have been active (according to DOGGR records) since mid 2014, with several producing no oil since 2013. 

SB 1281 by Sen. Fran Pavley (27th District) "requires operators to submit on a quarterly and well by well basis about 250 pieces of data related to the water used" in their oil and gas production. This includes the source of water used, any treatment, and the ultimate disposal of the water. The first reporting was released in August and is available HERE for public information. 

According to the press release issued on Sept. 3 The Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR)  may issue larger penalties on companies who continue to fail to meet reporting deadlines. 

433 operators are registered as active in California and are required to report this information. Of that number 329 "attempted to comply." But only 242 operators provided complete and "compatible" data. DOGGR is working with those operators who tried to comply but had issues with properly formatting their data. 

Operators in 2014 brought up more than 205 million barrels of oil and with that 3.3 BILLION (with a B) barrels of water. A barrel is about 43 gallons. That produced water is trapped underground with the oil and gas, and when brought up must be separated from the oil and gas, and then disposed of. 

Below is a list of the 30 operators who have been fined -