Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 2716, which requires low-production wells in the Inglewood Oil Field to be plugged and abandoned within 12 months of supervisor notification and all other wells in the field to be plugged and abandoned by December 31, 2030.
Prohibiting Low Producing Wells
The Inglewood Oil Field is located largely in Baldwin Hills, a neighborhood in south Los Angeles, and is within the Baldwin Hills Conservancy. The bill requires the Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) to identify all low-production wells located in the Baldwin Hills Conservancy on or before March 1, 2025. CalGEM must then determine how long each well has continuously been a low-production well.
Beginning March 1, 2026, the bill prohibits the owners of those wells from allowing those wells to operate as low-production wells for more than 12 months. There is a $10,000-per-month penalty for violating this provision and until the low-producing well is plugged and abandoned. Funds from these penalties will be used to pay for projects for communities living within 2.5 miles of the wells.
Ending Oil Production in Inglewood
The bill also requires all wells in the Inglewood Oil Field to be plugged and abandoned by December 31, 2030. The bill also requires all wells in the Inglewood Oil Field to be plugged and abandoned by December 31, 2030. Beginning January 1, 2031, there is a $10,000-per-month penalty for violating this requirement until the well is plugged and abandoned.
The Inglewood Oil Field has approximately 835 unplugged wells, according to the Assembly floor analysis of the bill. According to 2022 data, 655 of those wells are active, 180 are idle, and 441 are low-production wells, meaning that they produce less than 15 barrels a day.