California Oil Company Withdraws Drilling Proposal In Carson

CARSON (CBSLA.com) — A California oil company announced Monday that it is canceling plans to drill up to 200 new wells in Carson.

The California Resource Corp., formerly known as the Occidental Petroleum Corp., said it's backing off the proposed project.

"California Resources Corp. has concluded that our proposed Dominguez energy project is no longer practical in the current commodity price environment and we are asking the city to stop processing the project," the company said in a statement.

Furthermore, according to KCAL9's Dave Bryan, the company contends that California has a huge energy deficit because it uses a lot more than it produces.

But environmentalists say it may be a signal the company will be coming back soon to re-drill the wells when the prices rise.

"We always have to anticipate that they will try and come back," one woman told Bryan. "This is a long-term strategy for the oil and gas industry, but what we can do and what Carson City Council is doing is working to pass a zoning ordinance that will essentially ban out all types of extreme, unconventional oil-drilling in Carson."