By Leah Murray

NGPR says spending to reclaim gas wells will save money in the long run

Feb 22, 2018 | 3:19 PM

MEDICINE HAT – The Natural Gas and Petroleum Resources (NGPR) division is working to reclaim several abandoned low producing natural gas wells this year.

According to documents provided by the city, reclamation efforts have increased from 57 active project in 2012, to 754 at the end of 2017.

“Commodity prices and our operational costs just render these wells no longer economic and they’re abandoned and taken off the landscape.” said Kevin Redden, the manager for surface land and environment with NGPR

There are 381 wells are located in the Bindloss, Sandhills and Medicine Hat areas. There are an additional 153 sites in the Atlee and Manyberries areas.

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NGPR will need $1.6 million dollars from the city’s working capital fund to complete the remediation process on these wells.

Redden said most of the wells are in the final stages of reclamation, a process that involves restoring the land to the way it was before the wells were drilled.

“The soils and the vegetation is primarily what we’re looking at to get back to their pre-disturbance condition,” Redden explained. “There may be sub-surface impacts that happened at the site, depending on the well history, if that’s the case then we have to remediate and remove any impacts.”

In total there are 754 active reclamation projects. The majority are gas-related. The city estimates the total cost to reclaim a well is between $5,000 and $6,500 per site.

Redden said they do try to reduce costs by dealing with abandoned wells in the same area at the same time.

“You’ve [got] less mobilization of equipment, you’re dealing with areas that are a similar landscape and a similar operational history,” he said. “So, the sites look very similar to each other and you can apply the same practices and therefore save money while you’re out there.”

While the cost of reclamation is significant, there are some long term savings when it’s done.

NGPR estimates if all 754 wells achieved their reclamation certificates, it would save $1.4 million a year in surface lease payments to land owners.

Redden said this year they expect to add another 200 to 300 wells to the list of sites requiring reclamation over the next couple of years.