Print this pageTHE EUREKA CANYON 
OIL
FIELD: A CASE HISTORY
HESSON, Bruce H., [email protected]
The Eureka Canyon oil field is one of the oldest in Ventura County,
California, discovered in 1893 due to the presence of natural oil seeps. The
field is located near the City of Piru, south of State Highway 126 and the Santa
Clara River, with the wells located in two canyons named Smith and Eureka.
Comprising approximately 920 acres, 112 wells have been drilled in this field
with many of them drilled using cable tool rigs. T.E.G. Oil & Gas USA, Inc.
(TEG) currently produces 16 barrels of oil per day from eight wells in Smith
Canyon, with production from the Miocene formation found at an average depth of
1,800 feet. Due to marginal production, all the wells in the Eureka Canyon area
of the field were abandoned or left orphaned when the last operators of record
became defunct. Some of these wells are in a remote, steeply sloped, area of
Eureka Canyon that became inaccessible over time due to dense growth of
chaparral.
Wild fires rampaged through Ventura County in October 2003, impacting 24 oil
fields,including Eureka Canyon. While conducting field inspections following the
fires to assess damage and during subsequent well work, the Division of Oil,
Gas, and Geothermal Resources (Division) located and identified seventeen
previously inaccessible orphan wells, thirteen without wellheads. As a safety
and spill prevention measure the Division secured these wells. Record rainfall
in 2005 washed out lease roads and compromised some of the well locations due to
mud and rockslides. With TEG not interested in acquiring these orphan wells the
Division contracted to have them, and a total of 23 orphan wells in the Eureka
Canyon oil field, permanently plugged and abandoned. This paper will present a
brief field history and the Division's efforts to locate, identify, secure, and
abandon these wells.
