PAYNTON — Cenovus Energy held an open house for residents in the RM of Paynton July 10, with updates on the Rush Lake leak, which was first reported May 7. Many residents, including Cut Knife – Turtleford MLA James Thorsteinson, who farms north of Maidstone, came to the open house looking for some answers.
Clayton Ulrich, senior manager for the Upstream Division in Lloydminster, spoke to the media prior to the open house. Ulrich started by saying he understands the frustration from within the community, especially with the strong odours and the duration of the events. He continued to say Cenovus is laser-focused on getting this resolved, working as hard as they can while maintaining everyone’s safety.
While many of the residents can still smell the strong odour of the sour gas, or H2S, in the windy conditions from the site, Ulrich said the company is continuously monitoring the air and water quality on site and throughout the perimeter, sharing the data with the Ministry of Energy and Resources, citing that the current levels for the area are in the parts per billion, which is well below the health concern thresholds.
Ulrich also stated in his opening remarks that the word did not get out to the public soon enough.
“As things continued to progress and the duration became longer and longer, we realized we needed to get out to the public. We didn't do it soon enough, we understand that, but we are committed to changing that, and part of today with the open house is having those conversations with the residents and local communities.”
A 1-877 line was set up for residents to call and voice concerns, as well as liaisons going door-to-door, having one-on-one conversations with people throughout the rural municipalities and communities. The line, which was set up on May 20, has received between zero and six calls a day, with one day receiving nine calls.
Cenovus believes what is happening at the Rush Lake 2 site is a well casing failure, which is bringing up muddy, silty water from the steam injection. While it may still be unknown as to how or where the failure happened, Ulrich did say the company is working through their investigation to understand what is happening with the well.
“We feel that we have a casing leak, for sure, on location, but it's been very difficult to work through that process with eight pairs ... - eight producers and eight injectors on site, working through that process to identify exactly what it is,” said Ulrich.
During the interview, Ulrich spoke about what is being done to stop the current situation.
“Initially, it was containment, making sure that we didn’t get any fluid off-site, which we have not. We’ve done a ton of earthwork, building berms, geo-berms, managing and dredging the fluid so that we can pump the fluid into our C-rings. We’ve had two coil tubing units on our lease, two service rigs and two drill rigs to help bring the wells under control.”
Ulrich added that with eight paired wells, it has been difficult to identify which well is causing the release.
“We have 15 of the 16 wells stabilized and the site is stabilized. We’re still working on the last well right now that is still within our well control.”
It was said that Cenovus has tried a number of ways to contain the situation, including brine fluids, barite and cement. However, the location of the leak has been the issue, which is why drilling rigs have been brought in to help come in from a different angle.
The Rush Lake sites produce around 16,000 barrels of oil per day, which ceased production the day of the release. Although Cenovus says their concern is getting the well under control, they realized there is an issue with the pad and will be putting it to bed.
