Termo Postpones Drilling in Aliso Canyon

In light of the ongoing Aliso Canyon gas leak spurred by a damaged well at Southern California Gas Co.’s storage facility above Porter Ranch, a Long Beach gas and oil company has decided to postpone its proposed project to drill a dozen oil and gas wells. Termo Co.’s announcement came Thursday in a letter the company sent to Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander, whose district includes Porter Ranch, revealing its plans to temporarily postpone moving forward with the project. The oil company had been conducting an environmental impact report per the county’s request, and has opted not to release its findings or further pursue the project until the SoCal Gas leak has been resolved. “Termo intends to resume the environmental process sometime in the future as we recognize the fact that this is not the ideal time to move forward with the Porter Ranch community fully focused on more immediate issues,” Ralph Cobbs, Termo corporate development manager, said in a letter to Englander. “We look forward to that time when Termo can fully re-engage with the community on the (report) in a process that allows for full and focused involvement of the residents, stakeholders and governmental agencies.” Termo already operates more than 15 wells in Aliso Canyon, and in early 2014 the company proposed to drill an additional dozen wells in the mountains above Porter Ranch, sparking opposition from both residents and city officials. The proposed wells would occupy more than 5 acres of land in Aliso Canyon – which sits on roughly 3,600 acres north of Porter Ranch and Northridge in the Santa Susanna Mountains. On Friday, Englander said that Termo Co.’s postponement fails in comparison to retracting the proposed project entirely. “While I am delighted that the Termo Company has postponed the environmental review and thus the project, this falls short of a withdrawal of their expansion application,” he said in a statement.