Summertime Sadness For California But More Great News For The Bakken, Eagle Ford, And The Permian: Judge Puts California Fracking On Hold -- September 6, 2016

Link here to US News:

A federal judge on Tuesday tentatively rejected a plan by the federal Bureau of Land Management to open more than 1,500 square miles of lands in central California to oil drilling and fracking.

The BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental effects of the estimated 25 percent of new wells that would be devoted to fracking, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald wrote in the ruling. The process, formally known as hydraulic fracturing, uses high-pressure mixtures of water, sand and chemicals to extract oil and gas from rock.

Fitzgerald ruled that the BLM must provide more study on the effects fracking will have in the area. He gave the agency's attorneys until September 21, 2016, to argue why he should not issue an injunction stopping the plan. 

Summertime sadness. 50 year anniversary.

2012 (best played loud):

Summertime Sadness, Lana Del Rey
1962 (best played not so loud):

Sealed With A Kiss, Brian Hyland   ****************************** NASCAR Race Over Labor Day Weekend

I don't know how many saw it. As everyone knows, Tesla now has the fastest production car: 

“For the first time, the world’s fastest production car is electric,” said Tesla boss Elon Musk when he recently launched the company’s latest battery. The new 100kwh device can propel Tesla’s cars to about 97kph in just 2.5 seconds and allow them to drive 20% further before recharging, compared to previous batteries. 

So, there was great anticipation this past weekend when MuskMelon's Tesla Model S (or whatever it was) started at the pole position in the Labor Day 500 -- a 250-lap race on a 2-mile oval. 

 

The Tesla lapped every ethanol-burning stock car by the 30th lap, and was clearly the crowd favorite. 

 

But then the pit stop at the 80th lap to re-charge.

For The Archives: California's Dependency On Domestic Oil And Gas Industry -- September 2, 2015

For the archives. The Breitbart article has to do with fracking and California's drought. It's really a two-piece article. The first half of the article is on the Monterey Shale formation; the second half is one California's dependency on oil.

I linked this article earlier with the emphasis on Monterey Shale. This time, the stand-alone post has do with California's dependency on the oil and gas industry. If I was unaware of this, I assume most Californians were unaware of it, and certainly all of those "Jaywalkers" on Jay Leno's late night show are unaware of it.

Some very interesting data points:

The Sacramento Bee reported that up to half of the hundreds of new wells drilled each year in the San Joaquin Valley are being “fracked,” according to a study required by the 2013 law regulating the practice. [By the way, note the spelling of "fracked" by the Sacramento Bee.]

Zack Malitz of the environmental group Credo complained to Reuters: “Governor Brown is forcing ordinary Californians to shoulder the burden of the drought by cutting their personal water use while giving the oil industry a continuing license to break the law and poison our water.”

He added, “Fracking and toxic injection wells may not be the largest uses of water in California, but they are undoubtedly some of the stupidest.”

Gov. Brown has tried to sound high-minded about water use, but the real issue is that California’s State Budget is highly reliant on the oil industry revenues. 

The blog CalWatchdog.com calculated that the oil and gas industry contributed $21.55 billion to the state’s public fiscus. That amounts to over twice the salary compensation for state employees last year. If Brown cuts oil industry water, he will have to fire state workers.

Still, crude oil production in California has fallen for 27 of the last 30 years, from about 1.15 million to 566,000 barrels per day. California used to be self-sufficient, but now imports 62.8 percent of the petroleum it uses.

Last year, California spent about $32 billion to import 400 million oil barrels of oil.

The oil and gas industry contributes over $20 billion to the state coffers. You know that intermittent energy (wind, solar) takes money away from state coffers through tax breaks, subsidies, and grants.

Grumbling In California About Fracking

The AP is reporting at Rigzone:

In a year when California Democrats are worried about motivating their voters, Gov. Jerry Brown heard another unwelcome message Saturday: Some Democratic activists are bristling over his administration's policies on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Appearing at a state Democratic Party convention in Los Angeles, Brown found himself forced to speak over a noisy group of sign-waving protesters in his first major campaign speech since formally declaring his candidacy last month.

"Just listen a moment," Brown pleaded at one point, as the protesters bellowed "No fracking" and waved "Another Democrat Against Fracking" signs just steps from the podium where he was speaking. State Democratic conventions can be boisterous gatherings, but the protesters provided an unscripted distraction in what was otherwise expected to be a unified show of support for the 75-year-old governor, who appears headed for an unprecedented fourth term in the heavily Democratic state.

For Archival Purposes: Analyst Thinks California Is Back In The Oil / Fracking Business; If So, It Won't Be Any Time Soon

Rigzone posts an analysis by John Kemp, a market analyst. He thinks now that California has approved fracking with stricter regulation, the state is back in the oil / fracking business.

The first few paragraphs of this five-page internet article:

LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - California's lawmakers have ensured the state will remain a major oil and gas producer by approving new legislation allowing hydraulic fracturing and acid treatments to rejuvenate its ageing wells in exchange for strict controls and tougher enforcement. 

Senate Bill No 4 (SB 4), which Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Sept. 20, directs the state Department of Conservation and other agencies to adopt new rules and regulations covering well construction, fracturing and other well stimulation treatments by the start of 2015. 

The chemicals used will have to be disclosed to regulators and published, subject to special treatment for trade secrets. Penalties for violating certain regulations on oil and gas operations were increased from $25,000 per violation to between $10,000 and $25,000 per violation per day. 

In another concession to environmental and community groups worried about the safety of fracturing and acidizing, the law directs the state's Natural Resources Agency, which focuses on environmental protection rather than oil and gas production, to conduct an independent scientific study into the hazards and risks.

I'm sure the anti-oil lobby can delay the publishing of these "new rules and regulations" well past the "start of 2015."

Posted for archival purposes only.

OMG! Fracking Off-Shore! Regulators Looking Into This! Has Been Going On For Maybe 20 Years! Pumping Salt Water Into The Ocean Floor

The AP is reporting:

Companies prospecting for oil off California's coast have used hydraulic fracturing on at least a dozen occasions to force open cracks beneath the seabed, and now regulators are investigating whether the practice should require a separate permit and be subject to stricter environmental review.

While debate has raged over fracking on land, prompting efforts to ban or severely restrict it, offshore fracking has occurred with little attention in sensitive coastal waters where for decades new oil leases have been prohibited.

Hundreds of pages of federal documents released by the government to The Associated Press and advocacy groups through the Freedom of Information Act show regulators have permitted fracking in the Pacific Ocean at least 12 times since the late 1990s, and have recently approved a new project.

The targets are the vast oil fields in the Santa Barbara Channel, site of a 1969 spill that spewed more than 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, spoiled miles of beaches and killed thousands of birds and other wildlife. The disaster prompted a moratorium on new drill leases and inspired federal clean water laws and the modern environmental movement.

Companies are doing the offshore fracking — which involves pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of salt water, sand and chemicals into undersea shale and sand formations — to stimulate old existing wells into new oil production.

I thought they used fresh water in on-shore fracking. It is interesting that they use salt water for fracking off-shore.

California Lawmakers Provide Good News For The Bakken

Earlier this morning, RBN Energy provided a bit of insight regarding the narrowing of the Brent/WTI spread. 

The Brent/WTI spread of $15 covered the transportation costs of railing Bakken crude to the east coast.

As the Brent/WTI spread narrows, it becomes less attractive for the refineries on the east coast to buy Bakken oil. Brent will be cheaper.

Bad news for the Bakken.

Rail will allow the flexibility for Bakken oil to be railed to California.

Will California need it?

Yes.

California is getting closer and closer to putting a moratorium on fracking. After sixty years of safely fracking in California, the lawmakers there feel the technology needs to be studied. And, apparently fracking in California can only be studied once fracking is halted in California.

I can't make this stuff up.

By the way, RBN Energy does not think the Brent/WTI spread will continue to narrow all that much, and, in fact, will increase once again. Regardless, changes in oil shipments won't happen overnight. There are a lot of contracts in place.

California -- Again

Regular readers will remember this story, and some of the comments it generated. I'm less interested in whether California will see another oil boom. What impresses me is that the governor was able to stand up to the faux environmentalists at least to some extent.

Governor Jerry Brown's administration released draft regulations Dec. 18, 2012 requiring oil companies for the first time to disclose where hydraulic fracturing is used in California after receiving tremendous pressure from state lawmakers and environmentalists.

The proposed rules released by the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources will require oil companies to reveal that information on a national fracking registry, FracFocus.org, after they use the procedure. The rules also require energy firms to test the integrity of the wells before fracking to guard against leaks and to report the test results to regulators before beginning operations.

Chemicals deemed "trade secrets" would only have to be publicly disclosed in the event of a spill or accidental release, as needed for an emergency response or for medical treatments.

"Experience in other states has shown that such trade secret exemptions are being widely used and likely abused," the Environmental Working Group's Bill Allayaud said in a prepared statement.

Regulators said trade secrets are not widely claimed in other states.

Incredible Story Coming Out of California: Results Of The Year-Long Fracking Study Is Released

Updates

October 12, 2012: same story from Oil and Gas Journal. 

A study commissioned by Plains Exploration & Production Co. concluded hydraulic fracturing of two test wells at Inglewood oil field in Los Angeles County, Calif., indicated no detectable evidence that it might induce earthquakes or have negative consequences on groundwater quality, a consultant reported.

Carno Entrix of Los Angeles conducted the study, and the California Department of Conservation posted the study on its web site.

California is expected to release a draft of fracing rules soon. Don Drysdale, spokesman with the Department of Conservation, told OGJ that it will be “several weeks” before a draft is issued.

So, we await the "California" rules. Can hardly wait.

Original Post

As you read the story below, note that this story is coming out of California. The governor of New York needs to read this study. One can only imagine all the "politically-correct" talk that must have emanated from the study team prior to releasing their findings.

A huge thank you to a reader for alerting me to this story. I had not seen it yet, and I scan the LA Times several times during the day.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fracking-baldwin-hills-20121010,0,5707434.story

I generally don't "cut and paste" so much from a story, but this is a huge story, and if the story at the source is archived, I want to be able to see the story twenty years from now.

A long-awaited study released Wednesday says the controversial oil extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, would not harm the environment if used at the Inglewood Oil Field in the Baldwin Hills area.

The yearlong study included several issues raised by residents living around the field, such as the potential risks for groundwater contamination, air pollution and increased seismic activity. For months, water wells on the 1,200-acre field were monitored.

Data from ground and air monitors were collected and analyzed, but no effects were recorded before or after the technique was used, the study says.

"There were eight contributing studies addressing such things as vibrations at the surface, microseismic activity at depth, noise, ground movement measurements, subsidence, groundwater quality, methane in both soil and groundwater," said Dan Tormey, technical director and principal at Cardno Entrix, the environmental consulting firm that conducted the study.

"Each was a study that contributed to the [overall] hydraulic fracturing study." Plains Exploration and Production Co., the owner and operator of the oil field, paid for the review as part of a settlement agreement with Culver City and environmental and community groups.

The report was reviewed by two independent firms selected by the company and Los Angeles County. The 206-page study is the first of its kind in the state. It comes at a time when environmental and community groups are urging lawmakers to ban fracking, a technique that fractures rock formations to release trapped oil and natural gas. The process involves a high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemical additives into the drill site's wellbore.

Please go to the linked story to get the rest of the details.

Now, we await the comments from those suggesting the study was flawed. And, oh, by the way, who is Cardno Entrix?  Who funds them? Who is on the Board of Directors? What experience do they have in fracking? Did they study enough wells? Did they hold any meetings in Las Vegas? Was Al Gore invited to present opposing data? Did they consider the life-time carbon footprint from planning to production to shipment to consumer use of fossil fuel facilitated by fracking? Did they consider the impact on endangered species in downtown Los Angeles?

Seriously, it should be noted the number of studies done and the number of wells tested in this California study, compared to the two wells, and then one well, tested by the EPA in Wyoming (see "shenanigans in Wyoming").