Start your day with coffee and networking before the event.

The Conference Chair will set the stage for discussions ahead, outlining key themes for this year.

California’s oil and gas sector continues to face shifting dynamics shaped by production declines, regulatory changes, and the growing challenges in end of life well management. This session will examine current production and drilling trends and the pressures driving well abandonment and orphaned well management. Discussion will also consider how regulatory and policy developments are influencing the state’s energy future.

• Reviewing production and drilling trends
• Understanding the impacts of increasing idle wells
• Exploring regulatory and policy drivers shaping the industry

This session explores Kern County’s historic well sites and their role in shaping the region’s energy and industrial landscape. It highlights how historical records, artifacts, and community narratives inform today’s understanding of infrastructure challenges. The discussion examines opportunities for future site development, land reuse, and preservation strategies that balance heritage with modern needs.

Developing effective communication and feedback channels is essential to the success of orphan and idle well programs. This session examines new approaches for collecting community input, sharing information transparently, and improving public understanding of plugging and remediation activities. It will draw on insights from recent work to develop a framework for awareness and participation, highlighting strategies that strengthen trust and collaboration between agencies and the communities they serve.

Innovation is reshaping every stage of orphan and idle well management—from identification and assessment to remediation and monitoring. This session explores how emerging technologies, data integration, and collaboration across disciplines are driving progress, improving efficiency, and supporting long-term sustainability in well plugging programs.

Demonstration of state-of-the-art wellhead monitoring technology designed for precision and reliability in managing orphan and idle wells. This session will showcase how advanced sensors and data analytics provide real-time insights into well integrity and environmental emissions, helping to mitigate risks effectively. Learn about critical technical considerations and practical factors involved in selecting, deploying, and maintaining well monitoring systems in diverse field conditions. 
 

Some of California’s most valuable future development sites sit on or near legacy oil and gas activity, including idle and abandoned wells that shape land use, environmental obligations, and long-term risk. This session explores how landowners navigate the regulatory, technical, and transactional complexities of acquiring and developing these properties, including understanding CalGEM requirements, local permitting expectations, financial assurance obligations, and environmental liabilities.

Join us for a networking lunch and opening welcome from Sensys, setting the stage for an afternoon of collaboration and discussion.

Our lunch tables bring together experts from across the sector—join the discussion, exchange insights, and connect around key themes and challenges shaping orphan and idle well management.

This session explores how communities can repurpose marginalized lands to unlock new economic potential and environmental value. Participants will examine approaches to building resilience in regions impacted by orphan and idle wells, ensuring long-term sustainability and community trust. The discussion will also highlight workforce pathways tied to site redevelopment, showcasing how future-oriented strategies can create jobs, strengthen local economies, and support equitable growth.

This session will examine how multidisciplinary technical services can be structured into a summary of orphan and idle well abandonment programs. It will encompass the integration of environmental assessments with engineering design, operational execution, the utilization of drone and remote sensing technologies to identify undocumented and high-risk wells, the application of testing and inspection procedures to mitigate risks, and the implementation of program and construction management frameworks to achieve consistent, compliant, and scalable well closure outcomes.

Across the United States, orphan well programs are evolving as states implement new funding, data systems, and regulatory frameworks to address legacy wells at scale. This session provides a clear look at national progress, highlighting what’s working in program design, interagency coordination, and contractor engagement. It will also explore where further innovation, investment, and alignment are needed to sustain momentum and improve long-term outcomes in well remediation.

• Repurposing Well Sites and Surrounding Lands
  Speaker: Erica Blyther
• Integrating Geoscience into Orphan Well Solutions
  Speaker: Amy Spizzaani

This session examines how well integrity risk and performance can be quantified using a six well pad case study, integrating a comprehensive suite of well integrity services. It explores how data driven assessments support risk prioritization, performance benchmarking, and more informed integrity management decisions across the asset lifecycle.
 

Start your day with coffee and networking before the event.

Across many mature oilfields, wells drilled more than a century ago continue to pose operational, environmental, and financial challenges. This session brings together industry perspectives on how these legacy assets fit into long-term planning—from risk management and liability to potential repurposing and closure strategies. Panelists will discuss what the future holds for these aging wells and how operators are adapting their approaches as technology, regulation, and expectations evolve.

Advances in aerial sensing and imaging are transforming how regulators and operators identify and assess difficult-to-locate wells, especially in environmentally sensitive regions. This session will examine how drone-based surveys are being used to detect surface hazards, methane leaks, and undocumented wells, improving data accuracy and reducing field risk. It will also explore emerging applications of these technologies across other phases of site assessment and remediation.

Determining which wells to plug first requires a clear, data-driven approach that accounts for geological risk, safety, and environmental impact. This session explores how regulators and technical teams are using subsurface information—such as pressure regimes, structural integrity, and surrounding geology—to prioritize wells and optimize limited funding.

Across Los Angeles County and beyond, new collaborations are exploring how inactive oil production sites can be acquired and repurposed for community benefit. This session presents findings from ongoing feasibility studies examining pathways for reuse and redevelopment, including conversions to parks, open spaces, housing, and other public uses. It will address the balance between regulatory, industry, and community perspectives and highlight practical lessons on navigating ownership, environmental, and policy challenges in transforming former oil sites into new assets.

With federal leadership uncertain, states and voluntary markets are taking the lead in defining how carbon credits intersect with well plugging and emissions reduction. This session explores how evolving state policies, private registries, and industry innovation are reshaping funding models and accountability across orphan well programs.

Innovating carbon credits by turning methane and P&A liabilities into digitized assets to advance California’s energy transition. This session will examine how evolving policy and market mechanisms are shaping investment, accountability, and the future value of verified carbon assets in the state.

This session focuses on what actually moves orphan and idle wells to fully plugged and reclaimed sites. It examines on the ground execution experience in finding wells, securing access, contracting services, purchasing equipment, managing costs, and keeping crews working without delay. Drawing from recent hands on plugging projects led by the Well Done Foundation, this session highlights practical decisions, tradeoffs, and bottlenecks encountered in the field.

This session brings together a cross section of the industry to debate where there is genuine alignment and where views diverge in orphan, idle, and marginal well management. The discussion explores shared priorities, unresolved challenges, and the practical realities shaping policy, operations, and long-term planning. The session will focus on identifying areas of consensus while openly examining points of disagreement to support clearer pathways for future collaboration.

This session will explore the concept of using carbon offset credits to support ongoing methane monitoring at legacy wells, rather than only rewarding post-remediation outcomes. It will examine how such a model could work, what data it could generate, the barriers to verification and market acceptance, and the regulatory and funding hurdles that would need to be addressed, with a focus on whether and how this approach could fit in California.