The City Council has pressed the Pause button on strengthening rules governing Culver City’s one-tenth of the yawning Inglewood Oil Field.

As for the Oil Field Subcommittee of Meghan Sahli-Wells and Jim Clarke, what are they talking about since Sentinel Peak Resources walked from negotiations last month?

“Nada,” said Mr. Clarke. “We are just waiting for the consultant to finish the work on the draft environmental impact report. So we don’t have anything to discuss.”

No movement with the oil company.

“They just decided to let us go ahead and submit the draft EIR,” said the second-term Councilman. “When that happens, probably toward the end of September, there will be a public comment period.”

It is likely to be longer than two months because the reworked regulations are expected to run several hundred pages.

Mr. Clarke estimated that the ready-to-go document will come back to the Council in February or March in search of a green light.

Three and a half weeks after Sentinel withdrew from a public debate – with the Council and community members – Mr. Clarke said it probably did not make a difference in the path to an agreement or the outcome.

Sentinel is not starved for options.

The company is conducting its own research on new regulations, and results are 12 to 15 months away.

While the city seems inclined to implement new oil field rules in the first half of next year, Sentinel can step in at any point, seek an amendment and make goo of the progress to date.

(To be continued)