Alberta’s orphan well crisis

The province is seeing a sharp rise in the number of inactive wells without operators, and the problem will be expensive to fix

Alberta has come in for criticism from the media and environmental activists for the large and rising number of inactive oil and gas wells in the province. The problem, in conjunction with a significant uptick in bankruptcies and insolvencies among oil and gas companies, is swelling the number of inactive orphan wells—ones with no company to cover clean-up costs. Despite plans by the provincial government to change the regulatory regime for inactive and orphan wells, it appears that significant federal and provincial money will be required for decommissioning and reclamation. The province’s already weakened oil and gas industry is being hit significantly harder than most by the recent oil pr