Labour shortage concerns extend to oil and gas well cleanup efforts
BNN Bloomberg
Alberta's efforts to clean up tens of thousands of inactive oil and gas wells in the province could be delayed by a shortage of rig workers.
CALGARY -- Alberta's efforts to clean up tens of thousands of inactive oil and gas wells in the province could be delayed by a shortage of rig workers.
Mark Scholz, chief executive of the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors (CAOEC), said cleanup efforts will “face pressure'' due to a significant labour shortage in the drilling and services sector. Many of the same companies that provide rigs to oil and gas companies for new drilling programs are also involved in industry cleanup efforts, and hire the same workers for both types of contracts.
“Whether it's for new programs or abandonment operations, we're all going to be faced with crew shortages. So will (cleanup) be impacted? Yeah, it will,'' Scholz said.
Alberta has an estimated 97,000 inactive wells, as well as 73,500 wells that have been sealed and taken out of service but not yet fully remediated, according to provincial government figures.
The oil and gas industry has been under increasing pressure from environmentalists and landowner groups to clean up these sites and reclaim the land they sit on. Last year, the Alberta government announced it would require companies to spend a minimum amount of money every year ($422-million in 2021) toward cleanup of inactive wells.
The federal government has also made $1-billion available to Alberta for industry contractors working on well cleanup.
