Decades before Tony Bruder was ranching in southern Alberta, natural gas wells dotted the rolling landscape.
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The series of wells – drilled within the 1950s by British American Oil, later absorbed by Gulf Canada and eventually sold to much smaller companies – tapped into a “sour” gas field that spread under at least 14 ranches in the region, including Bruder’s property near Twin Butte.
“We’ve two sour gas wells on our place – they were both drilled in the ’50s, and both have been inactive since the late ’50s, early ’60s,” said the third-generation rancher. “We also have several pipelines which go across our place.”
There have been close to 450,000 oil and gas wells drilled in Alberta, about one-third of which are actually considered “abandoned” or “inactive” through the industry. A properly that’s no more producing but hasn’t been properly sealed poses an environmental concern like a potential pathway for contaminants to pollute groundwater or soil.
A well is deemed inactive, or suspended, if there’s been no activity for Twelve months.
In Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall has asked Ottawa for $156 million to clean up old wells in that province within an economic stimulus package to deal with the growing quantity of laid off oilfield services workers. Friday Canadian Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Ottawa would think about the request.
The Alberta government said now it won’t make a similar request, but lawyers dealing with landowners over the province said it may help deal with the burgeoning environmental problem.
It’s a mess and i’m unsure what the government will do
The downturn in the economy in the oil and gas industry has made the issue worse for a large number of home owners like Kelly Nelson, who has about 15 wells on her family’s farm near Vulcan.
“There are six wells that the company just disappeared upon us,” said Nelson, noting this means the $3,000 to $4,000 in annual rent per equally well . disappeared in 2012. She visited the Alberta Surface Rights Board, which resolves disputes between energy companies and landowners, also it now pays the rent.
“It’s a mess and i’m not sure exactly what the government can do,” she said.
Enforcing the existing rules continues to be challenge enough for the Alberta Energy Regulator, said Barry Robinson, an attorney at Ecojustice in Calgary. He noted that this past year the AER found 37,000 from the 80,000 “inactive” wells in the province weren’t in compliance with its own rules.
Another issue, he said, are wells that have been deemed “inactive” for decades, without any chance production will ever resume.
“Obviously, no one is returning to those, nobody will reopen those,” he said. “So they should be abandoned.”
An abandoned well has the surface equipment removed and cement poured down the well bore.
Robinson said the AER’s rules don’t put timelines on abandoning a properly, noting you will find at least 10,000 over the province that have been inactive for over a decade.
Another 66,500 wells happen to be abandoned, however the land hasn’t been reclaimed. About 17,000 happen to be that way for over a decade, he said.
“It requires time to abandon and reclaim, and that’s all fine in inactive wells, but we’ve got probably between 25,000 and 30,000 wells which have been inactive in excess of 10 years, just a slave to,” he explained. “The more a well sits inactive, the higher the risk that you are going to have groundwater contamination and leakage as the pipe stops working — that sort of thing.
“The earlier these wells are properly abandoned and properly reclaimed, the greater.”
Keith Wilson, a lawyer in St. Albert who handles about 20 to 30 ‘orphaned’ site cases annually, said the issue has been brewing for years as companies put installing new wells ahead of clearing up old sites once the oil price exceeded US$100 a barrel.
“We know, for sure, that they’re not likely to see incentive with oil at $30 a barrel, so now the issue is a whole lot worse,” Wilson said.
Bruder would simply like the province to enforce its abandonment policies.
In the meantime, he’ll keep collecting his annual rent on his two wells – a battle that’s increasingly of a concern because the companies suffer in the present economy. Nobody from the companies returned calls for comment.
Bruder said it’s more likely that they’ll spend the money for $3,200 to $5,000 fee for the inactive wells than clean them up.
“The reclamation companies let me know it might cost as much as $1.5 million to correct,” he said. “Even the company says, ‘It’s money. It’s cheaper to pay for you your annual fees than for me to clean up.’ ”
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