Cat Canyon Oil Project Application Withdrawn

By edhat staff

The application for a Cat Canyon oil project was withdrawn on Monday, making it the third project that’s been cancelled in the area this year.

The project planned to drill 233 new steam-injected oil production wells in West Cat Canyon operated by Cat Canyon Resources, LLC. The company formerly operated as ERG Operating Co. and Terracore.

“The applicant made this decision to focus on their existing operations and regulatory entitlements within the State Designated Cat Canyon Oil and Gas Field, and plans for future similar projects within their West Cat Canyon areas of operations,” according to the county’s Planning and Development website.

The project also included the installation of four additional steam generators, replacement of the existing 4-inch diameter fuel gas pipeline with an 8-inch diameter line, 10 new well pads, 1 new steam generator pad, and the use of 91 existing pads for a total of 102 well and equipment pads, the installation of inner-field piping and other supporting equipment.

All proposed facilities were planned to be located on approximately 75 acres within ERG’s 8,054-acre West Cat Canyon property holdings. Existing ERG operations include 185 active or idle non-thermal wells and 314 active or idle thermal wells. Water for steaming the proposed wells would be obtained from the brine water produced by ERG’s field operations on the Project property.

In March of this year, PetroRock, LLC withdrew their application to drill 231 new wells for oil production. In May, Aera Energy, LLC cancelled their proposed oil project to drill 189 wells in the Cat Canyon Oil Field.

Since 2017, the Environmental Defense Center on behalf of their clients, Sierra Club Los Padres Chapter and Santa Barbara County Action Network, voiced strong opposition to the three projects. 

“Together, these three oil projects had been considered one of the largest environmental justice threats in Santa Barbara County history,” wrote the Environmental Defense Center in May following Aera Energy’s cancellation.