Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) CEO Dennis Arriola said that injections of natural gas could begin “some time in September” at the beleaguered Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field (see Daily GPI, July 20). During an earnings conference call held by parent company Sempra Energy on Thursday, Arriola told analysts that the utility has completed the first series of tests on 114 wells at the facility. Of these wells, 96 have been reviewed and approved by California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), he said. “Out of the 96, we have had an additional 17 wells that have gone through the next series of tests, and they passed and they’ve been reviewed by DOGGR,” Arriola said. Out of 114 wells, 17 have been “completely cleared” by DOGGR, he said. Once DOGGR and the California Public Utilities Commission confirm that the entire field has met new requirements adopted by the state earlier this year, “…we believe that probably some time in September we’ll be ready to start injection, subject to their approval, of somewhere between 20 and 25 wells…September is our best estimate at this point in time.”