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Feds remove six Umiat legacy wells Ongoing effort remediating 60-to-70-year-old wells in NPR-A; program activity increases as federal money arrives Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
The federal government has removed six legacy wellheads at the Umiat oil field.
This winter, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, coordinating with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, plugged Umiat No. 1, No. 3 and No. 11 and removed the wellheads, and also removed wellheads at Umiat No. 4, No. 8 and No. 10, which had been previously plugged at the oil field in the foothills of the Brooks Range Mountains, along the Colville River. Crews cut the drilling pipes below ground level and buried the stumps beneath gravel and soil.
Marsh Creek LLC performed the work on behalf of the federal agencies.
Wells drilled in 1940s and ’50s The U.S. Navy drilled the wells in the late 1940s and early 1950s as part of an exploration campaign across the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska designed to increase domestic oil supplies following World War II. The campaign yielded a major discovery at the Umiat oil field that Australian independent Linc Energy Ltd. wants to develop.
But the exploration campaign also left many wellheads, which state and federal agencies have been rushing to remediate over the past decade. The most frantic effort came in 2005, when eroding coastline brought the Beaufort Sea within 15 feet of the casing of the JW Dalton test well and partially breached the reserve pit. Within six months of an emergency cleanup effort, summer storms had washed the project site into the sea. Funding a challenge until 2013 The incident prompted the BLM to create a proactive strategy for remediating other legacy wells in the NPR-A. The effort was slowed by low funding until passing of the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013. The act, which Sen. Lisa Murkowski helped author, set aside $50 million to remediate legacy wells, including $37 million for this fiscal year.
“We’re very pleased to be making headway on the cleanup of legacy wells, thanks in large part to funding provided through the Helium Act of 2013.” BLM Alaska State Director Bud Cribley said in a statement about the recent Umiat program. “This work reflects our continued commitment to protect public safety and Alaska’s environment.”
Since 2002, the federal government has spent more than $96 million plugging 21 “priority” legacy wells and remediating the sites, according to figures from the BLM.
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