Wells

California oil and natural gas permits for well abandonments to date this year are twice the number of new drilling permits being sought, according to regulators. The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) said it has received the lowest number of well stimulation permit applications since late 2016 when state Senate Bill 4 took effect.…

A substantial inventory in the Lower 48 of drilled but uncompleted wells, aka DUCs, could sustain drilling — without adding more wells — long into the coming year, according to a new analysis. “After DUCs run out, however, rig activity in the five key oil regions needs to be in the 280-300 range to maintain…

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said it approved the development of up to 4,250 oil and gas wells for the Moneta Divide Project in Wyoming. The project stretches across more than 327,000 acres of mostly public lands. Aethon Energy Management and Burlington Resources Oil and Gas Company LP proposed…

The Los Angeles (LA) City Attorney has filed 25 counts against embattled exploration and production operator AllenCo Energy Inc. for alleged environmental, health and safety violations at an oil production facility. The wellsite has been under scrutiny by the Department of Conservation’s California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM), which in March issued a remedial order…

The Alberta government launched a long-range campaign last week to make oil and gas companies pay for cleaning up a generations-old and growing backlog of 96,969 depleted and inactive wells. Energy Minister Sonya Savage announced a stiffened polluter-pay policy that requires producers to devise five-year cleanup plans and act on them under supervision by the…

Requests for U.S. drilling permits improved in June following a brutal April and May, with the Permian Basin still the top region for operators, according to Evercore ISI. The analyst firm each month compiles permitting statistics for the Lower 48 and offshore using federal and state data. Covid-19 and low commodity prices had crushed permit…

A two-year corporate bankruptcy case has resulted in a 110% jump in discarded orphan natural gas wells and production facilities awaiting cleanups, according to the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC). A court-supervised distress auction in the province only sold 414 sites or one-half the BC assets of defunct Ranch Energy Corp. to Erikson…

The North Dakota Industrial Commission (IC) on Tuesday adopted remedies that may protect oil and gas producers during an expected spike in idle wells from the global economic slowdown.

Officials on Monday countered allegations in a report that California regulators and the oil and gas industry are not prepared to handle a backlog of idle wells tied to declining production.