Dealing with Alberta’s orphan wells

GARY PARK

For Petroleum News

Alberta is confronting daunting odds in its commitment to bring dormant and orphan oil and gas wells into line with the province’s safety and monitoring regulations.

And the challenge is only being intensified as weak oil and gas prices add to the tally of wells in need of attention, given that many of the operators are engaged in a simple struggle to remain alive.

The Alberta Energy Regulator estimates that 77,000 wells in the province are inactive, of which about 18,000 have been in that category for more than a decade.

The agency’s target is to bring 5,500 wells within its rules in the 2015-16 fiscal year and solid progress has been made in the five months since a compliance program was launched in April, with about 3,600 wells brought into line.

But that still leaves more than 22,100 wells that are short of the standards that include protective fencing and testing for leaks - concerns that are supposed to be resolved over the next five years.

Barry Robinson, a national program director for Ecojustice, says that even as the program works towards its objective many of those wells could be contaminating the environment.

No pressure testing

The Environmental Law Center said the problems are aggravated by the absence of deadlines for well closures, compounded by the burden of liabilities on companies that have little or no hope of paying reclamation costs.

The number of orphaned wells - those whose owners can’t be traced or are involved in bankruptcy proceedings - has increased to more than 700 from 162 in March.

Orphan wells become the responsibility of the Orphaned Well Association that is financed by the industry.

The association fully expects the number of wells under its jurisdiction will continue to rise because of low commodity prices, but notes that many inactive wells are also waiting to be tied into pipelines or have been put on hold pending price recoveries.