In an effort to provide work for oil and gas workers during the downturn in the industry, the provincial government has requested $156 million in federal funding to get some of those workers back to work. The funding would go towards an Accelerated Well Cleanup Program (AWCP) that would accelerate the decommissioning and abandonment of non-producing wells in Saskatchewan.
Bruce Lerner, director of petroleum data management and compliance, with the Ministry of the Economy, said there are about 4,800 oil and gas wells in the Estevan area that are suspended. Suspended wells are ones that are not in use, from which there is no reported production activity.
There is also a total of 3,500 inactive wells in the area. Inactive wells are ones that are not in use, but still report production figures.
A media release from the Government of Saskatchewan states that the AWCP would speed up the decommissioning and reclamation of 1,000 non-producing wells over the next two years and create 1,200 direct and indirect jobs. The release also states that the AWCP will eliminate fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from unused wells, remediate environmental impacts of well operations and restore habitat and agricultural land.
Milton Vicary, owner of VCP Supervision Ltd., an oilfield consulting company in Estevan, is skeptical of the job-creating potential of the AWCP.
“How many people is it going to put to work? I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to be a lot of labour as much as the operational part of it is equipment and material,” said Vicary. “The biggest dollars will be swallowed up by equipment and material, not the labour. I think we can spend dollars creating employment in better ways that go directly to the people, not just the equipment people.”
In a media release, Dan Cugnet, chairman of Valleyview Petroleums Ltd. in Weyburn, said he supports the project, and believes it will entail benefits for the oil sector and Canada as a whole.
When a well is inactive, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be abandoned. Lerner said the Ministry cannot tell, on its own, which particular wells need to be abandoned.
“Only oil companies, themselves, know which ones are potentially not of value to them anymore,” said Lerner. “Companies keep wells for all kinds of reasons. They may have some future use in mind for a particular well site, and for that reason they may not want to abandon it.”
Another type of well that is in a state of disuse is the orphaned well. Orphaned wells are ones for which the last owner on record is non-traceable or financially insolvent. Orphaned wells are already managed by a provincial shutdown program, through which a provincial advisory committee assumes control, and decides what to do with them.
There are about 100 orphaned wells in Saskatchewan, and although the province already has a program in place to deal with them, some of the federal money for which the provincial government is requesting may go towards the shutdown of orphaned wells that are no longer useful.
Roy Smysniuk, manager of the Orphan Fund Procurement program with the Ministry of the Economy said abandoning a well involves vacuum and water truck services, and the services of cementers to clean out and seal the well.
“Once the down-hole work is complete, you cut and cap the well. That would include people like welders, backhoe operators and workers of that nature,” said Smysniuk. “Once that’s completely done, you move into the environmental phase, and carry out assessments on the area.”
The final stage in the process is the reclamation and restoration of the site of the well to its original condition. Reclamation includes removing and disposing old equipment, cleaning up any woil and salt water spills, restoration and re-contouring of the site and revegetation of the land.
