Existing law establishes the Geologic Energy Management Division in the Department of Conservation, under the direction of the State Oil and Gas Supervisor, who is required to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities related to oil and gas production within an oil and gas field, so as to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources. Existing law requires the department to report to the Legislature on April 1, 2021, on the number of hazardous wells, idle-deserted wells, deserted facilities, and hazardous facilities remaining, the estimated costs of abandoning or decommissioning those wells and facilities, and a timeline for future abandonment and decommissioning of those wells and facilities with a specific schedule of goals. Existing law requires the department to provide an update on the report to the Legislature on October 1, 2023, that describes the total costs, average costs per well and facility, the number of wells plugged and abandoned, the number of facilities decommissioned, the total number of projects completed, and any additional wells and facilities identified by the department requiring abandonment or decommissioning.
This bill would require the report and the update to identify the location of the applicable wells and facilities, including the county where they are located. The bill would require that the report and the update identify wells that are registered to an operator that has reported no active, injection, or production operations in the prior 5 years and whether the owner of the well failed to pay the required annual fee for each idle well or failed to have a valid idle well management plan on file with the supervisor. The bill would require the division to undertake all reasonable steps to recover plugging and abandonment costs for oil and gas wells, the costs for decommissioning attendant facilities, and other costs to remediate sites from the current registered owner of any well identified in the report or update as not having reported any active, injection, or production operations in the prior 5 years and that did not pay the required annual fee for an idle well or failed to have a valid idle well management plan on file with the supervisor.

Statutes affected:
SB1012: 10281.5 PRC
02/14/20 - Introduced: 10281.5 PRC
03/26/20 - Amended Senate: 3258 PRC, 10281.5 PRC
SB 1012: 10281.5 PRC