Old, unproductive oil and gas wells could cost up to $70B to clean up, says new report

A new report suggests cleaning up all of the old and unproductive oil and gas wells in Alberta will cost between $40 billion and $70 billion.

The Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project (ALDP) a consortium that includes landowners and scientists came up with the figure using data obtained from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).

The figure is much higher than an AER estimate, which pegs the anticipated cleanup cost of all oil and gas infrastructure at $58.65 billion. The AER's number includes pipelines and other facilities, while the ALDP only looked at oil and gas wells.

The ALDPreleased the report in Calgary on Monday morning.

"I've spent the last three years trying to come up with a viable solution to this conundrum," said ReganBoychuk, a researcher with the ALDP. "The first step is understanding the problem better and calling for transparency (from the AER)."

The number of wells in the province slated to be remediated is about 3,000.However, there are more than 100,000unproductive wells that will need to be cleaned up.

"The mess continues to grow," said Mark Dorin, who has had a problem well for more than a decade on his family's land near Didsbury, a town located 80 kilometresnorth of Calgary. For several years, the well was leaking gas into the air. His mother, Shirley, said it impacted her health when she would be out in the yard.

"My garden is very close in proximity to the oil well, which had been supposedly been shutdown," she said. "I would notice a really severe headachewhen I would be out in the garden."

Only after calling the provincial environment officials and hiring a lawyer has the family been able to stop the leak. Now, they wait for the well to actually be cleaned up.

While pipelines and the oil industry are mentioned daily on the election campaign trail in Alberta, the issue of abandoned wells in the province has not been a prominent topic of discussion, although some of the parties have made pledges in their platforms.

For instance, the NDP and Liberals both pledge to introduce timelines for when cleanup work must occur. Currently, companies can delay the work indefinitely.

Meanwhile, the UCPwants to overhaul the liability system and ask the federal government for help in the form of tax incentives and other financial support.

"The two pieces that I think are needed, regardless of party, are timelines and security in some form, it doesn't necessarily need to be cash," said Barry Robinson, a lawyer with Ecojustice, whohas long been sounding the alarm about the orphan well problem in Alberta.

After dissecting the political promises so far, he is glad to seethe NDP and Liberals are pledging to introduce timelines, while he said the United Conservative Party'sideas about providing security are promising.

"ButI just feel for all of them; it's kind of vague until you tell me exactly what you are going to do," he said.

The AERdid not immediately respond to our request for comment.

Here are the campaign pledges so far: