Chevron marked a return to active drilling in Kern County on Friday with a site tour and gathering of local officials near McKittrick, celebrating a restart that company leaders say has been years in the making. The event comes as the oil giant outlines ambitious plans for 138 new wells at the McKittrick oil field, part of a broader wave of permitting activity rippling across the county.
A Restart Years in the Making
According to BakersfieldNow, Chevron has drilled about 40 new wells since August, per reporting from the Bakersfield Californian. Ray Thavarajah, Chevron's general manager for the San Joaquin Valley, attributed the restart to a permitting pathway established under Senate Bill 237, telling the outlet that greater regulatory certainty made the investment decisions possible. Chevron currently operates one active drilling rig in Kern County, according to turnto23.com, and conducts its drilling in western Kern County.
Thavarajah also discussed the possibility of a return to drilling at the Kern River oil field near Bakersfield, though no details beyond that discussion have been confirmed. On the permitting front, Chevron recently submitted 138 new-well permit applications to the county, six of which have been approved locally and subsequently authorized by the state, according to a report from Yahoo News. Thavarajah said the additional permits allow the company to sustain its existing production. “The additional permits allow us to sustain the production that we have. It means to keep the jobs we've got,” he told turnto23.com.
Permitting Surge Across the County
Chevron is not the only operator benefiting from the renewed pipeline of approvals. California Resources Corporation said it received 193 of the 194 permits it applied for to meet its 2026 drilling needs, the same turnto23.com report notes, with four of the company's five active drilling rigs currently operating in Kern County and supporting roughly 360 jobs.
The surge traces back to Kern County's resumption of local oil permitting after a pause that lasted roughly three years amid legal challenges and regulatory changes, including heightened state oversight, the outlet reported separately. Statewide, an analysis of state data found 353 new-drill permits approved in the first half of 2026, compared with just 17 during all of 2025. Politico's California Climate newsletter had earlier flagged the acceleration, noting that the state issued 31 new permits in January alone — nearly double the total for the entire previous year.
Local Numbers, Statewide Caution
The local figures tell a similar story. Between Jan. 2 and a Monday evening count, Kern County reported issuing a total of 361 oil permits, about 39% of them for drilling new wells, per the same Yahoo News account. But the state's oil and gas regulator urges caution in reading too much into those totals. The California Geologic Energy Management Division says permit counts do not directly correlate to an increased number of oil wells, since not all permits are issued for drilling new wells.
The legal backdrop to the permitting pathway traces to Senate Bill 237, which established the framework Chevron credits for making its restart possible. Bill text from the California Legislative Information website shows the legislation would prohibit the division from approving more than 2,000 notices of intention to drill new wells in reliance on a referenced environmental impact report, unless the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission formally finds that additional approvals are warranted. The excerpt available does not spell out the full scope of that exception.
Chevron's restart has also raised broader questions about what increased local oil production could mean for California's energy supply, as a separate BakersfieldNow report notes. For now, the company's focus remains on the wells already underway in western Kern County and the 138 more it hopes to add near McKittrick in the months ahead.
