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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
June 2014

Vol. 19, No. 25 Week of June 22, 2014

With money coming in, BLM moves forward with legacy well cleanup

Federal agencies are moving ahead with plans to clean up so-called legacy wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Millions of dollars are in hand for the work, and much more funding is expected, officials with the Bureau of Land Management said.

The BLM manages the vast petroleum reserve on Alaska’s North Slope.

The government and its contractors drilled some 136 exploratory wells and boreholes between 1943 and 1982.

Alaska drilling regulators and elected officials complained the government had neglected many of the drill sites, never properly plugging and abandoning the old wells and leaving surface areas polluted and strewn with junk.

BLM officials said they doubted the sites posed any serious hazard. But the agency nevertheless developed a “strategic plan” to remediate legacy wells.

In years past, the BLM spent considerable sums to secure wells threatened by severe erosion along the Beaufort Sea coast.

Now new work is planned. BLM officials provided Petroleum News with a progress report.

Funding situation

In October 2013, President Obama signed legislation dealing with the BLM-administered Federal Helium Program that provided funding to remediate and close abandoned oil and gas wells on current or former national petroleum reserve land. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, helped author the legislation.

BLM Alaska has received $10 million, the first installment of funding from the helium act, agency officials said. The BLM expects to receive another $37 million in fiscal year 2015, with a final $3 million in fiscal year 2019.

The BLM had planned to plug a legacy well known as Umiat No. 3 last winter, but was unable to secure the necessary equipment, including a blowout preventer, before the work season ended.

“A limited supply of resources, personnel and equipment is available on the North Slope each winter,” the BLM progress report said. “The federal government is in competition with industry for resources, personnel and equipment. Private industry will typically plan and contract for projects a year or two in advance. The BLM has not had the ability to plan as far ahead, as the agency typically doesn’t receive its annual budget until the winter season is starting up.” The BLM was, however, able to remove the wellhead at another legacy well, Umiat No. 9, during the 2013-14 winter. It did so under an interagency agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Upcoming work

This summer, surface cleanup work is planned at legacy sites known as Simpson Core Test 26, 30 and 30A.

“These wells were plugged in 2006, however, the wellheads were not removed at that time due to an agreement BLM had with the Alaska State Historic Preservation Office,” the BLM said. “The solid wastes were not removed, as they were covered in snow at the time.”

The Army Corps will select a contractor for the cleanup and ground surface sampling, the BLM said.

For the 2014-15 winter, the BLM will continue to cooperate with the Army Corps for work at Umiat.

The BLM anticipates plugging the Umiat No. 3 and Umiat No. 11 wells, and also cleaning up any solid waste and conducting soil sampling.

Neither plugging job will require the use of a drilling rig. The work will involve putting in cement surface plugs, said Robert Brumbaugh, the BLM’s legacy well coordinator.

Cathy Foerster, who chairs the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, was one of the most outspoken critics of the BLM on the legacy well issue. The commission regulates drilling statewide.

BLM officials gave commissioners a legacy well briefing on June 4, and Foerster said she was “encouraged” by what she heard.

- Wesley Loy






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