By Jon Cox, BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN
A jump in Kern County drilling permits was a foregone conclusion when a new state law took effect in January to avert soaring gasoline prices. But less expected was a concurrent drop in well reworks and other non-drilling oil-field activity.
A new analysis of state data shows that while new drilling permits hit 353 statewide by June 30 a nearly 20-fold increase over the 2025 year-end total remedial well-rework permits are down 81% from last year’s total.
Meanwhile, sidetracks that produce secondary well bores have fallen 93% from 2025’s year-end total to settle at 36, and well plugging-and-abandonment jobs are off 79% at 830.
It’s unclear how many of the permits have actually been carried out as proposed in applications. But taken together, the data suggests the Kern-centric industry has pivoted from making the most of its existing wells, or closing them altogether, to doing what oil producers prefer in the best of times: drilling new wells.
Several local oil producers did not respond to request for comments on the data or were unable to offer an explanation by late Friday afternoon.
But a spokesman with the Western States Petroleum Association offered what the trade group saw as the most likely reason for the shift since Senate Bill 237 took effect Jan. 1, allowing Kern County to begin issuing over-the-counter oil permits.
“Before SB 237 took effect, new well permits were not being issued, so the focus seemed to be on sidetrack recompletions and reworking existing wells,” Media Relations Director Jim Stanley said by email.
“Now that new drill permits are being issued, it is likely that the focus and resources have shifted back to that and sidetracks and reworks are less of a priority.”
“Additionally, responsible field management requires new drills, and the lack of permits before SB 237 led to a significant amount of pent-up demand that is now being addressed with the limited resources remaining in the area.”
That view wasn’t shared by Consumer Watchdog, the Los Angeles-based advocacy group that released the report with the help of FracTracker Alliance, headquartered in Pennsylvania. They saw the surge in drilling permits as almost a betrayal by the Newsom administration.
“This is definitely the wrong direction for California,” Consumer Watchdog advocate Liza Tucker said in a news release.
“This is a reversal of our commitment to stop oil drilling and to stop endangering nearby communities.”
Local oil producers watched with frustration in recent years as the administration tightened oil-field regulations as a way of accelerating the state’s transition away from petroleum fuels toward greater use of renewable energy.
By 2025, drilling permits issued by the administration slowed to just 17, while plug-and-abandonment jobs that essentially end an oil well’s productive life went the other direction, hitting almost 4,000.
SB 237 was a response to the administration’s worries that a rash of refinery closures, partly caused by a shortage of in-state oil production, would send gasoline prices to $8 or more per gallon, likely harming the state’s economy.
The bill basically gave environmental clearance to the county’s contentious, years-long campaign to issue permits so that oil producers don’t have to depend as much as state-level reviews that have slowed for reasons including lawsuits and added regulations.
