Stop 750+ Oil Wells:
The Companies & The Oil
Petro Rock has withdrawn its application!
The new oil wells are being proposed by 2 different companies – Aera and TerraCore (previously ERG). Petro Rock also had a proposal to drill but withdrew its application in April 2020.
These wells would drill through the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin which provides drinking water to more than 12 cities, including Santa Maria, Orcutt, and Guadalupe, thousands of businesses, our local wine industry, and hundreds of square miles of agriculture – totalling over 200,000 people. All proposed projects would use cyclic steam injection techniques to extract oil (and in some cases gas). Cyclic steam injection, or “steam fracking”, is a technique in which steam is pumped underground to reduce the viscosity of oil so that it can be pumped more easily. This requires a lot of freshwater resources (for the steam) and incredible energy intensity (to produce the steam).
We’re working with our coalition partners – including Food and Water Watch, Safe Energy Now, and Sierra Club Los Padres Chapter– to ensure these projects are stopped before they can further wreck our climate and water.
About the Companies:
AERA: Aera (owned by Shell and ExxonMobil) is proposing to drill 296 new oil wells. The company would use the energy-intensive practices of cyclic steam injection — also known as “steam fracking”— to extract up to 10,000 barrels of oil per day. For more information, visit the County’s Planning and Development Page: https://www.countyofsb.org/plndev/projects/energy/AERA.sbc
TerraCore: TerraCore is proposing to drill more than 230 new steam injection wells. The company is a relatively new player, having taken over the project after the Texas-based ERG Operating Company went bankrupt. The project would build 11 new drilling pads, expand 91 current pads, and require nine processing facilities and equipment areas. During the bankruptcy, ERG was also unable to demonstrate how they would mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their project; it has since been indefinitely removed from the county’s agenda, likely waiting for Aera’s project to be voted on first. For more information, visit the County’s Planning and Development Page: https://www.countyofsb.org/plndev/projects/energy/ERGWestCC.sbc
PetroRock: PetroRock, the third company, proposed to drill 230 new cyclic steam injection wells in Cat Canyon. For more information, visit the County’s Planning and Development Page: https://www.countyofsb.org/plndev/projects/energy/PetroRock.sbc
About the Oil:
Because of the properties of the oil itself, coupled with the the extraction and refining methods necessary to produce it, California oil in general has a higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions potential, making it some of the dirtiest oil in the country. The same is true for Santa Barbara County. This oil isn’t fast-flowing “sweet crude”; the thickness of the oil found in Santa Barbara County requires highly emissions-intensive techniques for extraction. The oil that would be extracted from the three new proposed projects in Santa Barbara county is more like the Canadian tar sands – an oil-deposit that has been labelled “game over” for the climate – than the lighter crude that was extracted here in the past. The oil that one of the companies, Aera, is hoping to extract is so heavy that lighter crude will need to be trucked from Bakersfield to mix with the heavier oil before it can be sent back to Bakersfield for refining. The process would take about 30,000 total truck miles per day, aggravating air pollution and traffic and contributing even more carbon emissions.
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