Federal well cleanup money getting direction

By Medicine Hat News on May 28, 2021.

More than half a billion dollars from a federal fund to abandon and reclaim aging oil and gas wells has been allocated in Alberta and Saskatchewan, figures from those province’s energy ministries show.

In a one-year update Thursday, Saskatchewan Minister of Energy and Resources Bronwyn Eyre announced $184 million in that province’s $400-million Accelerated Site Closure program had been awarded or earmarked for projects. That involves 500 contractors working on 1,400 well closures and about 2,500 site remediations

Figures for Alberta, which are updated weekly, state that of $386 million has been awarded through a similar program funded by a $1-billion grant from Ottawa announced in the spring of 2020.

About two-thirds of the work in Alberta is related to abandonment work and the rest to environmental work to clean up sites.

The Alberta Energy Ministry forecasts about 1,900 jobs have been supported in the well-servicing industry.

Alberta has announced six separate $100-million phases of the grant program which will total $1 billion. Saskatchewan opened its most recent $200-million phase in December and only details of how a final tranche of $100 million is yet to be announced.

Saskatchewan’s report this week also breaks down spending by region.

Awards totalling $36.7 million are earmarked for the Swift Current area, $27.9 for Kindersley area, $59.5 million around Estevan and $60.6 million near Lloydminster.

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