Stimulation

Oil and natural gas operators in California face stepped up oversight in the months ahead as the Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) undergoes an extensive reorganization, the head of DOGGR told NGI’s Shale Daily on Tuesday.

California’s new rules covering well stimulation, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), completed the state’s environmental review and went into effect Wednesday as called for in a state law passed two years ago (SB 4). They replace interim regulations that have been effective since the start of 2014.

California's new rules covering well stimulation, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), completed the state's environmental review and went into effect Wednesday as called for in a state law passed two years ago (SB 4). They replace interim regulations that have been effective since the start of 2014.

In anticipation of a mid-year effective date for the state’s new well stimulation rules, which cover hydraulic fracturing, California’s Department of Conservation (DOC) on Wednesday released a draft environmental impact report (DEIR) and separately the results of an independent scientific assessment commissioned by the state. The DEIR concludes that most impacts can be mitigated.

California’s new rules covering well stimulation, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), completed the state’s regulatory process last Tuesday and will become effective July 1.

California oil/natural gas regulators on Thursday issued yet another set of draft well stimulation rules, including for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), making further refinements based on nearly 200,000 comments that have been accumulated in the past 10 months. One change has raised the proposed threshold level for seismic activity tied to well stimulation to 2.7 from a previously proposed level of 2.0.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in California, including its associated water use, is relatively benign, according to an independent report commissioned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that was released Thursday.

All but one of the proposals to address hydraulic fracturing (fracking), including all of those seeking moratoriums on the well stimulation practice, have bitten the dust in the California legislature. The lone bill standing (SB 4) is still awaiting committee referral in the lower house Assembly (see Shale Daily, June 3).

Houston-based eCORP Stimulation Technologies LLC claims to have successfully tested a waterless hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluid consisting solely of propane in Frio County, TX, in the Eagle Ford Shale. The test simulated conditions in the shale play at 5,950 feet, the company said.