Socalgas

While the target date for plugging the leak is still two months off, emissions have dropped 60% at the natural gas well storage site at Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso Canyon underground field near Los Angeles, according to estimates by state regulators that were issued on Tuesday.

The prolonged leak of a well at the Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field has left the industry, state regulators and the multi-billion-dollar Sempra Energy utility in the cross-hairs of climate change activists like the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), whose representatives on Friday called for a re-evaluation of the future role of natural gas in the nation’s energy mix.

Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and the regional air pollution regulators have agreed to pursue a plan to capture and burn at least part of the escaping emissions at SoCalGas’ two-month-old natural gas storage well leak on the northern suburban fringe of Los Angeles (see related story), following an all-day public hearing last Saturday in the Porter Ranch residential area impacted by the leak.

Residents living in the area adjacent to the Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) underground natural gas storage field, where a two-month-old leak has forced many to relocate, have asked state oil and gas regulators to shut down the facility.

Attorneys have cited the absence of a safety valve in lawsuits on behalf of residents that have been dislocated by a two-month-old natural gas storage well leak in the northwest end of the Los Angeles San Fernando Valley (see Daily GPI,Nov. 19).

Separate federal and state probes are now underway in California as the Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage well leak continues to draw the spotlight. The leaking well in the foothills northwest of downtown Los Angeles has officials focusing on unanswered questions regarding the volumes of methane escaping into the atmosphere and the extent to which over-pressurization led to the well failure.

California regulators recently approved a new tariff for Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) to enter the distributed generation sector, which is growing in the state.

Lawsuits, investigations and public invectives were mounting in California Wednesday against Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) over a two-month-old natural gas underground storage well leak and the resulting impact on a suburban Los Angeles community.

Local radio talk show hosts and elected officials on Thursday toured Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon underground storage field where a gas well leak is now two-months old. At the same time, efforts to plug the well and keep the 86 Bcf storage facility operating continued almost unnoticed.