American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015 - 135

ConventionSection: California Independent Petroleum Association

CIPA Holding Its Own
Against Activists
SACRAMENTO, CA.-The California
Independent Petroleum Association will
gather for its annual convention, June
11-14, at the Coronado Island Marriott
& Spa in San Diego, during a time in
which its members are navigating through
the challenge of low oil and gas prices.
"Besides the regulatory and political
challenges that always are pressing in
California, our members also are trying
to fight low oil prices and rationalize operations, exactly like producers in the rest
of the country," observes CIPA Chairman
Ken Hunter, president and chief executive
officer of Vaquero Energy in Bakersfield,
Ca. "Our rig count has dropped about 75
percent in the last six months."
In the face of an uncertain market,
California oil and gas companies can take
encouragement from CIPA's string of
successful efforts to beat back ballot measures seeking bans on hydraulic fracturing
and other industry operations in California's
producing regions, says CIPA Chief Executive Rock Zierman. "We have had
success building a coalition of supporters
across both sides of the aisle that allows
us to continue producing, but we are
being attacked constantly by environmental
groups that want us to go away completely," Zierman says. "We will talk a
bit about that at our annual meeting."
Injecting Controversy
In 2015, California anti-development
activists' efforts to hobble the state's oil
and gas producers seem to focus more
on stirring fears about underground injection control, Zierman reflects. Critics
continually insist that oil and gas operators
are poisoning California residents by injecting produced water into groundwater
aquifers, says P. Anthony Thomas, CIPA's
director of government affairs.
"It could not be further from the truth,"
he says. "Our oil and gas producers, their
children, their grandchildren, and all their
family members use the same water as
the industry's opponents. It would be
counterproductive to purposely inject any
waste or harmful substance into the
groundwater."
The state's Division of Oil, Gas &

CIPA Annual Meeting
San Diego, Ca.
Thursday, June 11

10 a.m. Executive Committee Meeting,
Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa
Noon CIPA Board of Directors Meeting
3 p.m. CNGPA Board of Directors Meeting
5-6:30 p.m. Welcome Reception

Friday, June 12

10 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Segway Tour
10 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Mini Photo Tour
1-5 p.m. Golf Tournament
2-4 p.m. Cooking Demonstration
2-4:15 p.m. Segway Tour
7-10 p.m. Dinner Cruise

Saturday, June 13

7:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Trade Show Open, Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa
7:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m.-Noon General Session
10-11:30 a.m. Surfing Lesson
12:20-1:40 p.m. Membership Luncheon
1-4 p.m. Sip N Paint
1:30-4 p.m. General Session
5:30-7 p.m. Chairman's Reception
6-11 p.m. Kids Camp
7 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Gala Dinner, Awards
and Dancing

Sunday, June 14

8-9:30 a.m. Send-Off Breakfast

Geothermal Resources has not approved
an underground injection permit in nearly
a year-whether for produced water disposal or steaming wells for gas recovery-as the agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency review California's UIC program to ensure that it
complies with the federal Safe Drinking
Water Act, Hunter observes.
"Mostly, oil and gas companies use
aquifers with very poor quality water," he
points out. "There are the aquifers in which
the quality is not exactly freshwater but
close to it, but they also naturally contain
oil, which kind of makes them freshwater
and oil aquifers. Getting the state to continue
allowing injection into those aquifers is
proving more problematic."
Hunter goes on to say UIC matters
have become CIPA's primary political

issue. "We really are being challenged in
California," he reflects. "The political
sensitivity stems from the drought and
people's consciousness about water consumption. It has been made worse by all
the scurrilous claims attempting to link
fracturing to freshwater contamination.
Nonetheless, the accusations still hang
there."
According to Zierman, EPA has accepted California's UIC work plan, and
DOGGR plans to process new applications
for aquifer exemptions during the next
18 months. Meanwhile, in mid-April,
nine anti-industry lawmakers headed by
Senator Fran Pavley, D-Los Angeles,
urged Governor Jerry Brown to close all
the state's injection wells. In a letter, the
legislators assert that the state permits
oil and gas injection wells to operate in
aquifers suited for drinking water, but a
review of 2,500 injection wells identified
by Pavley finds no contamination that is
associated with oil production, Zierman
says.
By the senator's own admission, there
is no evidence that any drinking water
wells have been contaminated, he says.
Zierman goes on to note that 25 legislators
from both parties have sent Brown their
own letter, urging the governor not to
shut in injection wells.
The scenario offers an instructive example, Zierman suggests. "Certainly,
there is an element against us, but there
is a much larger coalition that understands
the role we play and the need to meet
Californians' energy demands," he says.
"We worry constantly about that threat,
but I think it still comes from a small minority with the ulterior motive of wanting
to shut us down. These people could not
care less about injection wells. They do
not know much about well stimulation,
but they talk about hydraulic fracturing
to create public fear with the hope to end
all oil and gas production."
Local Initiatives
CIPA and other industry organizations
continue to successfully beat back proposed hydraulic fracturing bans in producing areas, Zierman says. The latest
MAY 2015 135

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