Alberta has 80,000 inactive wells in total, a number that is increasing as the pace of abandonment outstrips that of reclamation.
Worse, said Robinson, regulations designed to allow operators to bring wells into and out of production as markets require are being used to mothball wells for years and even decades without having to spend the money to clean them up.
"They can keep the well inactive as long as they want. The longer a well sits inactive the more the likelihood that you could have some sort of wellbore issue.
"Some of these wells have sat for 15 or 20 years."
Besides the environmental risk, the suspended wells are also a risk for landowners.
"The banks want protection that you're not going to get nailed with a million-dollar cleanup when you buy a property," said Don Bester of the Alberta Surface Rights Association, which advocates for landowners. "Same as the seller -- he has to do an environmental assessment to provide to the buyer.
"If I've got a contaminated site on my place, where do you think the buyers are going to run to? Completely away."
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Other jurisdictions force operators to clean up a well after a certain period of inactivity, said Robinson. In Colorado, a well can only be suspended for a maximum of six months. After that, an operator must explain why an extension is necessary. Unless special circumstances apply, a well must be fully remediated with 18 months after becoming inactive.
Colorado's ratio of active to inactive wells is 18 to one. In Alberta, the ratio is three to one.
"That seems to be a process that works in some jurisdictions," Robinson said.
Wilson said Alberta's current rules only postpone the inevitable -- perhaps until it's too late.
"You have to clean these wells up while the cash is available in the oil companies to do so," he said. "If they pay out all of their value in dividends and disposing of assets to shareholders without first cleaning up their liabilities, then who's going to be left to deal with the liability?"
How much is abandonment & "remediation" as a % of a well's capital & operating cost?
In Alberta almost all subsurface rights belong to the province, so the farmers only get paid for surface disturbance.
