Oil giants sell thousands of California wells, raising worries about future liability
FILE – In this Aug. 28, 2018, file photo, oil drilling equipment is seen in the West Texas fields where the Bakken shale is located. The latest on lawsuits filed by environmental groups over damages from the oil industry’s handling of hazardous chemicals and drilling practices. The lawsuits, filed in California and four other states, are seeking damages from oil companies for their handling of hazardous chemicals at oil and gas wells in the past. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
FILE – In this Aug. 28, 2018, file photo, oil drilling equipment is seen in the West Texas fields where the Bakken shale is located. The latest on lawsuits filed by environmental groups over damages from the oil industry’s handling of hazardous chemicals and drilling practices. The lawsuits, filed in California and four other states, are seeking damages from oil companies for their handling of hazardous chemicals at oil and gas wells in the past. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Oil companies are selling thousands of wells across California, raising questions about their future liability from accidents they’ve caused, in this state and dozens of others, in the decades after the petroleum industry began drilling wells on public land.
Last year’s production — in the third quarter alone, oil companies produced 945,000 barrels of oil, according to industry figures — was only half the output of the peak. And it was far below the amount that can be pulled from the ground.
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“It’s like a big hole opening up and there’s a little bit of oil coming out, but it’s not enough to satisfy what you want to do,” said Todd Reicher, the president of a California watchdog group that filed lawsuits against oil companies alleging they caused groundwater contamination when the wells they drilled became inactive.
A company that owned a well in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of San Diego for decades that was producing in the neighborhood until the 1980s sued the oil companies and won a large judgment in the 1990s. After the court decided the law did not allow the oil companies to collect for past pollution, they didn’t try again. But litigation was still brewing.
In 2018, there were more than 200 new oil and gas
