Oil Drilling Permit Approvals Cratered In 2023; Plummeting Production Calls for Plugging Idle Wells, Chevron Wells Produce Only 3 Barrels of Oil Per Day, Reports Consumer Watchdog

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Jan 30, 2024, 13:23 ET

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- California oil regulators issued 95% fewer permits to drill new wells and 25% fewer to fix or redrill existing wells during 2023 in a cratering of permit approvals over 2022, Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance said today.

While Chevron has complained that state regulatory policies, such as limiting permitting, have resulted in financial losses, new research by FracTracker shows that California oil production is no longer profitable. See the new FracTracker analysis here: https://www.fractracker.org/2024/01/index-of-oil-and-gas-operator-health-in-california-january-2024/. Chevron, one of the biggest oil producers in California, is currently producing an average of just 3 barrels of oil a day per well, enough to fill the fuel tanks of just 10 Camry hybrids or 5 Ford F-150s. 88% of all oil producers in the state are producing average per-well volumes of under 4 barrels per day as they scrape the bottom of California reserves.

Meanwhile, drillers have spent tens of millions of dollars to overturn a legislatively authorized ban on community drilling that is designed to protect communities from being poisoned. A referendum of SB 1137 is on the November ballot, despite the fact that wells near communities are yielding very little oil and idle wells near communities are being plugged at much slower rates.

Oil regulators issued no new well drilling permits in the fourth quarter compared to 113 in the fourth quarter of 2022. The issuance of all permits, including redrilling and reworking existing wells, plunged 93%. Permit approvals to plug wells rose 57% in the fourth quarter of 2023, though overall they fell during 2023 by 22% over the year before. See Table 1.

Table 1. CalGEM Oil and Gas Well Permitting Counts for 2023, Quarter 4.
	Permits by Well Types				Permit Count Totals
	Oil and Gas Production		EOR & Support		O&G and EOR Totals			Plugging
Year	New Drilling	Rework/ Redrill	New Drilling	Rework/ Redrill	New Drilling	Rework/ Redrill	Total	Abandon
2022 – Q4	113	526	110	466	223	992	957	930
2023 – Q4	0	39	1	28	1	67	68	1,460
Percent Change:	Down 100%	Down 93%	Down 99%	Down 94%	Down 99%	Down 93%	Down 93%	Up 57%
*Permits for Sidetracks and to Deepen wells are included in the Rework/Redrill counts