Company: PED
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001654954-25-003703
Chunk: 262

Company: PEDEVCO CORP
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 262
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, we could incur potentially significant added cost to comply with such requirements, experience delays or curtailment in the pursuit of exploration, development or production activities, and perhaps even be precluded from drilling wells.

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Moreover, because most of our operations are conducted in two particular areas, the Permian Basin in New Mexico and the D-J Basin in Colorado, and potentially extending into Wyoming in the future, legal restrictions imposed in those areas will have a significantly greater adverse effect than if we had our operations spread out amongst several diverse geographic areas. Consequently, in the event that local or state restrictions or prohibitions are adopted in the Permian Basin in New Mexico and/or the D-J Basin in Colorado and/or Wyoming that impose more stringent limitations on the production and development of oil and natural gas, we may incur significant costs to comply with such requirements or may experience delays or curtailment in the pursuit of exploration, development, or production activities, and possibly be limited or precluded in the drilling of wells or in the amounts that we are ultimately able to produce from our reserves. Any such increased costs, delays, cessations, restrictions or prohibitions could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, results of operations, financial condition, and liquidity.

Water Discharges

The Federal Clean Water Act (“CWA”) and comparable state laws impose restrictions and strict controls regarding the discharge of pollutants, including produced waters and other oil and natural gas wastes, into or near navigable and other regulated waters. The discharge of pollutants into regulated waters is prohibited, except in accordance with the terms of a permit issued by the EPA or the state. The discharge of dredge and fill material in regulated waters, including wetlands, is also prohibited, unless authorized by a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “USACE”). Whether CWA permitting is required depends upon whether and the extent to which “Waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) may be impacted by the planned activity—for example, construction of drilling pads, access roads, or pipelines. Rulemaking by EPA and the USACE to define WOTUS has been heavily litigated, resulting in the rule taking effect at times in some states but not others and creating definitions that are more inclusive of certain waters effective in some states and those that are less inclusive effective in other states. The EPA’s and USACE’s WOTUS definition rulemaking published in the Federal Register on January 18, 2023 (the “January 2023 Rule