California Shale Viewer
This map displays CA’s active and new oil and gas wells, including stimulated and non-stimulated wells.
Last updated: June 2017
About This Map
The California Shale Viewer is designed to introduce interested parties to the unique nature of shale oil and gas development in the state of California, or what is known as “Unconventional Development”. It is termed uncoventional because the source of oil and gas is not a typical reservoir, rather it is the “source rock”. The source rock typically includes the sedimentary basin where over many millions of years geological pressures and heat transformed ancient organic materials into hydrocarbons. Geological pressures force the hydrocarbons from the source rock into conventional pools or reservoirs closer to the Earth’s surface. When these conventional reservoirs are drained, oil and gas companies use “stimulation” techniques to access the hydrocarbons in deeper “source rock”
The California Shale Viewer will be continuously updated to map the expanding oil and gas development as it occurs. Featured map layers on the California Shale Viewer focus on oil and gas well stimulation (hydraulic fracturing and acidizing) in the state of California. The hydraulic fracturing well-site data comes from multiple sources. Some operators (oil and gas drillers) reported when they used hydraulic fracturing to the state regulatory agency (California Department of Conservation Division of Oil Gas and Geothermal Resources [DOGGR]), but most did not. Since January 1, 2014 all operators are required to notify DOGGR and receive approval prior to stimulating wells. In recent years, local California jurisdictions have also required notification if an operator plans to stimulate a well, including the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Other sources of Data include the crowd-source based web-platform, SkyTruth, which has generated a dataset of hydraulic fracturing based on the information reported to FracFocus.org. FracFocus.org refuses to provide aggregated datasets of their well-site data, but was still helpful in creating the dataset.
Map Contents
Name: CA Stimulated Wells (updated 6/30/17)
Sources: ftp://ftp.consrv.ca.gov/pub/oil/GIS/Shapefiles/, http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dog/Pages/WellStimulation.aspx, http://xappprod.aqmd.gov/r1148pubaccessportal/Home/Index, fracfocus.org, skytruth.org
Notes: This layer shows all wells marked as STIMULATED (including hydraulically fractured, acidized, and gravel packed). The data set is a hybrid, sourced from local, regional, and state regulatory databases.
Name: CA Active and New Oil and Gas Wells
Source: ftp://ftp.consrv.ca.gov/pub/oil/GIS/Shapefiles/
Notes: Oil and gas wells are developed to extract the fossil fuels from under the ground. In California, well site development is regulated by the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR). This dataset is taken from the complete set of wells drilled in California and joined to the Production data for each well. Updated 6/30/17.
Name: CA Shale Plays
Source: EIA, modified by FracTracker Alliance
Date Downloaded: 2013
Notes: Shale plays are specific areas in which carbon-rich shale deposits capable of producing oil and gas are likely. This data is from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). It has been altered from the original by restricting the results to California.
Name: CA Shale Basins
Source: EIA, modified by FracTracker Alliance
Date Downloaded: 2013
Notes: Shale basins are broad depositional areas likely to contain one or more shale plays. This data is from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) at http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/maps/maps.htm. It has been altered from the original by restricting the results to California.
Name: CA Watersheds – Large
Source: US Department of Agriculture
Date Downloaded: 7/30/13
Notes: California watersheds at the HUC 08 (eight digit hydrologic unit code) level of detail. This has been modified from the original in that it has been clipped to the terrestrial boundary of California.
Name: CA Watersheds – Small
Source: US Department of Agriculture
Date Downloaded: 2008
Notes: California watersheds at the HUC 12 (twelve digit hydrologic unit code) level of detail. This has been modified from the original in that it has been clipped to the terrestrial boundary of California.
Name: CA Counties
Source: US Census Bureau
Date Downloaded: 2008
Notes: County boundaries in California. Shapes have been altered from the original in that they have been trimmed to exclude jurisdiction over water, such as the Pacific Ocean.
Generalized Layers
Due to the large file sizes, this map also contains generalized layers for Stimulated and Conventional Oil and Gas Well map layers. They show the location of their respective content when the map is zoomed out past 1:750,000, but do not include specific well or facility data. To access these data, zoom in to 1:750,000 (about the size of a county) or beyond, at which point the generalized layers will disappear, and the individual data will become available in popup boxes by clicking on the map icons.
