Socalgas

Southern California Gas Co. attorneys on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges concerning the natural gas storage well leak near a Los Angeles neighborhood that forced thousands of residents from their homes.

On Monday, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) began a multi-day process of permanently sealing the leaking natural gas storage well at its Aliso Canyon facility in far north-suburban Los Angeles.

Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) utility said Thursday it has temporarily controlled the flow of gas at a nearly four-month-old well leak at its Aliso Canyon facility in suburban Los Angeles. A relief well has intersected the 8,600-foot deep base of the leaking structure.

Natural gas storage facilities are facing new pressure after the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) pipeline unit issued a safety advisory Tuesday for operators to immediately inspect their facilities. Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), wrestling with the three-month-long Aliso Canyon storage well leak, also is facing more lawsuits.

While the long-term political, regulatory and economic ramifications of the three-month-old Aliso Canyon natural gas storage well leak for Sempra Energy and its Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) unit are still unknown, the inevitability of significant, longer term impacts on the gas storage sector nationally is becoming clearer with each day and week that the leak continues. More federal regulation is coming, based on current developments in California and Washington, DC.

Regional air quality regulators on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in Los Angeles against Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), alleging negligence by the nation’s largest gas-only utility in the handling of a three-month-old leaking natural gas storage well.

A South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) hearing board last Saturday ordered the permanent closure and other steps related to Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) leaking natural gas storage well (see Daily GPI,Jan. 19).

Concerns about the lack of contingency plans for outages in major natural gas infrastructure were aired Thursday at the California legislature’s first hearing in response to the three-month-old leak in a gas well at Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon underground storage facility in the Santa Susana Mountains.

A top official in California’s Department of Conservation (DOC) earlier this week told local news media that an injection practice used by Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) at the time it discovered a natural gas storage well leak last October needs further review by state regulators. It is part of the state’s investigation of the prolonged leak, which has displaced thousands of local residents.