One of a number of wells left orphaned by LGX Oil + Gas in southeastern Alberta. (CHAT News photo)

By Alex McCuaig

Orphaned Wells

MHC training students to deal with Alberta’s orphan well backlog

Mar 5, 2020 | 9:34 AM

MEDICNE HAT, AB – With more than 3,400 orphaned wells in Alberta placed within the Orphan Well Association’s portfolio due to bankruptcies with no shortage of others being held by private corporations still active, there is an opportunity to get oilfield crews back to work, says a Medicine Hat College instructor.

But that’ll require the Orphan Well Association (OWA) to ramp up its work to start the clean up of the province’s oil and gas legacy, said Brent Smith, instructor at MHC’s reclamation program.

“I think a lot of companies are going to have problems connecting with the Orphan Well Association,” said Smith. “Up until the last couple of years, it’s been a small outfit but the number of wells on their inventory is growing. The biggest issue right now is trying to connect these reclamation companies with the Orphan Well Association and move ahead with reclamation.”

The OWA is funded through levies imposed on oil and gas companies but has also seen an infusion of cash via a $235 million dollar loan from the Alberta government in 2017 and another $100 million loan this month, both of which are interest free.

Smith says OWA’s inventory of orphaned wells has gone from several hundred to several thousand in the last few years, “with another several thousand next year.”

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As for the impact to the college’s reclamation program, Smith said, “in the medium to long term, I think it will be more employment for local students. Certainly reclamation involves technical work, development of knowledge, soils, ecology, grasses, remediation – all of those things require expertise that we develop at the college here.”

In addition to those wells under the OWA, the City of Medicine Hat is also shuttering hundreds of its non-profitable oil and gas well over the next two years.