Aliso

While public officials and activist groups spar over its long-term importance to regional energy supplies, Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) shuttered Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage facility is not likely to reopen until all of its 114 storage wells have passed a series of integrity tests.

Mirroring requirements laid out by state agencies, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) on Thursday outlined plans for ensuring the integrity of the now-closed Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field, which it hopes to reopen by late summer.

In the aftermath of a prolonged natural gas storage well leak in Southern California, the Obama administration on Friday launched a federal interagency task force to examine gas storage safety.

Some 229 leaks were found in California’s 12 underground natural gas storage fields in a recent survey, but all but a handful were minor and nearly all of them were repaired by the time the survey results were released recently. Non-utility run Lodi Storage in Northern California was the only one found to be leak free.

Further signs appeared Friday that California intends to pay closer attention to its myriad of natural gas underground storage facilities, as state regulators levied civil penalties for gas venting against an ongoing oil producer at Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) now closed Aliso Canyon storage field, where a four-month-long well leak ended last month (see Daily GPI, Feb. 18).

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) on Thursday released the results of indoor air testing in homes nearest its Aliso Canyon underground gas storage field in Los Angeles and concluded methane levels are now “well below” environmental screening values. In addition, the homes were found to be free of the natural gas odorant mercaptan.

Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) confirmed Friday that it has accelerated its promised inspection of 115 storage wells using infrared technology at its closed Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field.

While leadership has shifted to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in overseeing an independent investigation of the root causes in the four-month-old natural gas storage well leak in Southern California, the future of the 86 Bcf, 3,600-acre underground storage field is shrouded in doubt and dissention.

Engineers from California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) on Thursday confirmed that the nearly four-month-old leaking natural gas storage well in Southern California has now been permanently sealed.