Abandonment of Oil Wells in San Gabriel Fault Zone, Placerita Oil Field
May of 2022 thru May of 2023
Aerial image from Google. Wells in red box. This is at the northeast corner of Confusion Hill. The San Gabriel Fault zone (blue line) runs diagonally through there.
Street level view from Sierra Highwy looking northwest. (Photo taken on 4/23/2016)
Early 1950's aerial photo showing Sierra Highway on the bottom with Sindell Community 1 in the lower red circle and Fee 6 in the upper red circle. Both wells are on the pump. (photo from scvhistory org)
Reverse view looking southeast. Sierra Highway is the road in the distance. (6/3/2016)
Part of CalGem (DOGGR) map 251 showing all the wells in this area. The five wells that were abandoned have green circles. Map 251 covered the whole Placerita oil field.
In 2021, CalGem (California Department of Conservation, Geologic Energy Management Division - formerly DOGGR) ordered that the wells in this area to be properly abandoned. Since the last operator no longer existed, the state contracted for its abandonment using funds that were already set up for these kinds of oil wells (called "orphans"). The extimated cost to abandon each well was $10,000. General Production Service (GPS) was selected to do the work. They already do much of the work for the Placerita field. GPS specializes in servicing oil wells, providing workover rigs, coiled tube units, cement trucks, vacuum trucks, and other equipment.
The CalGem description (from their website) of legally plugging and abandoning an oil well:
"A well is plugged by placing cement in the well-bore or casing at certain intervals, as specified in California laws or regulations. The purpose of the cement is to seal the well-bore or casing and prevent fluid from migrating between underground rock layers. Cement plugs are required to be placed across the oil or gas reservoir (zone plug), across the base-of-fresh-water (BFW plug), and at the surface (surface plug). Other cement plugs may be required at the bottom of a string of open casing (shoe plug), on top of tools that may become stuck down hole (junk plug), on top of cut casing (stub plug), or anywhere else where a cement plug may be needed. Also, the hole is filled with drilling mud to help prevent the migration of fluids."
The well had to be cleaned out. Tubing (casing), pumping rods, and any stuck tools needed to be pulled out. The site had to be left in a "natural" state, which meant burying the wellhead hole and removing all the oil field hardware laying on the ground.
The wells drilled in this area, and in much of Confusion Hill, seemed to have started out with an impressive initial production that quickly dropped. Within a few years the amount of oil produced was not commercial. These wells were then converted to waste water disposal (injection) wells. The waste water would come from other wells in the Placerita field. Large volumes of water was obtained while drilling for oil and gas and that water was not drinkable by man or beast or suitable for agriculture. A place to dispose of it was needed and the water waste wells fit that need.
NOTE that for each well, I do not show all the steps. I could not be there every day and could only be there during certain times of the day.
Wells:
This is the area in June of 2024. Not sure what the land owner is doing, but there is now a wrought iron fence facing Sierra Highway and piles of dirt further in. Maybe a construction dump is planned, but I don't really know. (6/23/2023)