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California’s First Class VI Well Permits Approved by U.S. EPA
10th January 2025
On December 30, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) issued four Class VI permits for carbon dioxide (CO2) injection wells in California. These permits are the first such permits approved for California and the first for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. The well permits were issued to Carbon TerraVault (CTV), a subsidiary of California Resources Corporation (CRC), CRC’s Elk Hills cryogenic gas plant in Kern County. Under the U.S. EPA’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program, Class VI wells are used to inject CO2 into deep underground formations isolated from underground sources of drinking water, where it is trapped and permanently stored.
The permits authorize CTV to inject into the 26R reservoir of the depleted Elk Hills oil and gas field. CTV expects to inject CO2 at rates of 1.46 million tonnes (Mt) per year and estimates that the Elk Hills field holds 38 Mt of CO2 storage resources.
Approval of these Class VI permits marks an important milestone for California’s goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2045, and the United States, which has the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
References:
https://www.epa.gov/uic/class-vi-wells-used-geologic-sequestration-carbon-dioxide