From: Harry McLachlan
To: [email protected]; CITY COUNCIL (INCL. CMO STAFF) Subject: Civil Center Oil Well Funding Request
Date: Monday, March 31, 2025 9:35:16 PM
Attachments: Huntington Beach City Council April 1, 2025.docx See attached Word document.
4/1/2025
NEW (25-218)
Huntington Beach Special City Council Meeting April 1, 2025 Agenda Addendum: Item 13, 25-266 Civi Center Oil Well Abandonment Funding Request.
I’m Harry McLachlan, I live in Huntington Beach.
I have many years of experience working as an engineer in the oil industry in onshore and offshore exploration, production, workovers, and abandonments.
The capping and abandoning of oil wells in California has always been the responsibility of the well operator, not the lessor of the well location. Why is the City of Huntington Beach footing the bill for this abandonment? To my knowledge, the City of Huntington Beach does not own or operate any oil wells. Chevron owns most local mineral rights, including those through The Huntington Beach Company, a major landowner in the city that is also a WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF CHEVRON. Chevron, or to
whomever they may have sold the mineral rights, is responsible for the abandonment process and all its associated costs.
If an operator becomes insolvent or deserts their idle wells, responsibility for permanently sealing and closing these wells may fall to the state. If you have not already investigated this, please table this funding request until you have ascertained that the City of Huntington Beach is indeed the legally responsible party. We do not need to spend $900,000.00 on a process that should be handled by the legal operator of the oil well or the State of California.