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BLM says 50 legacy wells need attention Agency releases draft action plan for old wells on Alaska’s North Slope; four Barrow-area sites are first in line for cleanup Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Federal land managers are acknowledging that 50 so-called legacy wells on Alaska’s North Slope need plugging or site cleanup.
That and other key determinations are in a draft “strategic plan” the Bureau of Land Management released May 8.
BLM has been under pressure to address dozens of wells federal departments drilled between 1944 and 1982 in or near the BLM-managed National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Alaska politicians and drilling regulators have accused BLM of abiding junky and polluted drill sites and old wells that were never properly plugged and abandoned.
The 27-page strategic plan ranks each of the 136 legacy wells according to the surface and subsurface risk it poses, if any. The plan is available online at www.blm.gov/ak.
BLM ranks 68 wells as needing no additional attention, with 50 requiring remediation. The U.S. Geological Survey is still using the final 18 wells for Arctic climate change monitoring.
The strategic plan identifies 16 priority wells for cleanup, all in the area of Barrow and the Simpson Peninsula to the southeast. One of these wells, the Iko Bay Test No. 1 at Barrow, has a small gas leak, which potentially poses a threat to public safety.
“The well lies near a well-traveled winter trail and the building that houses the well has been known to provide shelter for those traveling in inclement weather,” the strategic plan says.
Alaska officials react BLM seemed to draw qualified praise from all concerned.
One of the agency’s sharpest critics, Cathy Foerster of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, even sounded rather conciliatory. Foerster chairs the commission, which regulates drilling statewide.
“I am very encouraged to see many of AOGCC’s concerns addressed in the strategy,” she told Petroleum News.
Foerster noted, however, that AOGCC’s count of legacy wells no longer of concern is 35, compared with BLM’s count of 68.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called BLM’s draft strategic plan “a step in the right direction.”
But she added, “I’m concerned that the agency appears to have unilaterally decided that more than half of the wells don’t require remediation. That’s not the federal government’s decision to make — that’s up to the state of Alaska.”
Both Murkowski and her colleague, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, had blunt criticism for the federal government’s idea on how to fund legacy well cleanup. The president’s 2014 budget proposal commits some of the state’s 50 percent share of NPR-A oil and gas revenue to the work.
“There is no way that Alaska is picking up the bill for the NPR-A legacy wells,” said Begich, after meeting with BLM Alaska State Director Bud Cribley. “To me, this budget proposal cooked up in Washington is just a gimmick and I told them as much.”
Murkowski called the proposal to effectively make Alaska pay for cleanup of the federal wells “dead on arrival.”
Upcoming remediation plans Between 1944 and 1982, the Navy and USGS conducted exploratory and scientific drilling in the NPR-A, formerly known as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4.
BLM was given responsibility for the wells in 1982.
“We recognize the importance of cleaning up these well sites. This plan lays out an aggressive strategy to address some of the highest priority wells,” Cribley said in unveiling BLM’s legacy well strategy. “Full remediation of the wells that the BLM has inherited will require tremendous resources over the coming years, but the BLM is committed to working with the state and villages to get the job done. I want to thank Senators Murkowski and Begich for their leadership in continuing to draw attention to this important issue.”
The BLM plan says surface cleanup will begin this year on three wells with high surface risk: the Simpson Core Test No. 26, the Simpson Core Test No. 30, and the Simpson Core Test No. 30A.
These well sites have solid waste left behind by the Navy, including drums submerged in oil seeps, the plan says.
For the Iko Bay Test No. 1, a small drill rig will be used to plug it, with remediation to begin during the winter season after a contract is awarded, BLM says.
The plan identifies more groups of Barrow and Simpson wells to be remediated later.
BLM made special mention of a few wells, including the Gubik No. 2, which is ranked as having a high subsurface risk due to a small gas leak.
The Skull Cliff Core Test site has 200 drums posing a hazard to winter travelers.
The Topagoruk No. 1 well site has scattered junk such as piping, battery cores and the remains of a burned out drill rig.
And the Tulageak No. 1 well is only 350 feet from the rapidly eroding Beaufort Sea coast.
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