The Legault government refuses to reveal the information concerning the 62 oil and gas exploration wells which must be closed by the companies responsible, but at the expense of the State. Quebec, however, says that the bill for taxpayers will not exceed $33 million and that the work will be completed within four years. Meanwhile, the plan to clean up dozens of other abandoned wells is progressing very slowly, as several leak fossil fuels.
The duty asked the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MERN) for the list of 62 exploration wells, including several shale gas wells, which will have to be permanently closed in the wake of the end of oil and gas exploration in Quebec. The ministry refused to provide us with this information.
Following a request for access to information, it was finally possible to obtain a document, but heavily redacted and presenting barely any information with few details. It contains the number of 14 wells and the name of the company “responsible” for each of them, including five wells for shale gas and eight for oil exploration. One of the companies mentioned ceased to exist, another left Quebec and a third filed a lawsuit last year against the government because of the stoppage of its oil project in Gaspé, near a neighborhood residential.
The list sent to To have to includes only a “projected cost amount included in the final well closure and site restoration plan” for five of the wells. The document does not provide any additional details for these shale gas exploration wells, which will have to be monitored post-closure by the Quebec government over the next few years.
Transparency
Member of the Scientific Collective on the question of shale gas and energy issues in Quebec, Marc Brullemans deplores the lack of transparency of the government, which has promised to finance 75% of the costs of closing these wells. “There are no costs, we don’t know the nature of the work and we don’t know by whom the work will be done. However, for the 62 wells, a list of upcoming operations and a timetable would be needed. This information should be made public, to show transparency on the progress of the work, ”he argues.
In the office of the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Jonatan Julien, however, we want to be reassuring. The “total cost of the definitive closure of the 62 wells” is estimated at $43 million, based on the “plans” filed by the companies responsible for the wells. This amount includes a portion of $25 million for “contingencies”. This means that the bill for Quebec taxpayers should not exceed $33 million, according to the MERN. Including the compensation paid to companies, we are talking about a bill of 100 million dollars.
The Minister’s office is also confident that all wells will be closed within 12 to 48 months, as provided for in the Act mainly to put an end to the exploration and production of hydrocarbons as well as the public financing of these activities. It is the companies that must carry out the work to close the wells, after having their plan approved by the ministry.
Marc Brullemans is less optimistic than the Legault government. “I doubt that everything will be settled within three to five years, as the government says. We don’t know what the closure works will allow us to discover, for example fumes. We risk ending up with wells that are difficult to close. But whatever we do, we will have to continue inspections over the next few decades. We will have to come to terms with this heritage. Each well will have to be taken care of. »
According to Brullemans, the 29 shale gas wells that have been fractured are expected to require one-time work over the next few decades. He therefore estimates that the final bill, estimated at $33 million, will possibly be much higher than what the MERN claims.
Is it wise to close exploration wells permanently? Do the companies wish to propose another plan to the government? The Quebec Energy Association did not respond to our interview request. Utica Resources, which holds several exploration permits, still has an active lobbying mandate to advocate for gas development. Questerre Energy also has an active mandate, in particular to challenge the ban on hydraulic fracturing.
Late decontamination
What’s more, the bill borne by taxpayers — who also paid more than $120 million for oil exploration projects between 2012 and 2018 — will continue to climb, if we take into account abandoned exploration wells in Quebec. . There are no less than 775 of these wells in the province, of which 534 have been located and 95 which require “work” to help stop gas or oil leaks.
However, while some wells have been experiencing leaks for several years, even several decades, decontamination and closure work on these wells is slow to materialize. Last year, the government had launched two calls for tenders to find a company responsible for developing “a program for the definitive closure of inactive hydrocarbon wells” and for supervising the work to come. On two occasions, the call for tenders had to be canceled for lack of a bidder.
Three other tenders were launched in April. They concern a total of 21 abandoned wells. So far, only one contract has been signed. It concerns six wells located in Montérégie and Lanaudière, drilled between 1930 and 1956, for which MERN inspectors found “contamination”. One of the calls for tenders includes the treatment of four old wells drilled in Gaspésie at the end of the 19and century and leaking oil. The region has several others, according to what emerges from the MERN inspection reports.
How much will work for the 95 problematic abandoned wells cost? It is currently impossible to obtain an accurate estimate of decontamination costs. For the moment, the 30 wells for which the MERN has entered a cost estimate lead us to a total bill of $54 million, in which 16 wells are valued at more than $1 million. However, this estimate concerns less than a third of the 95 wells officially under state responsibility. All of these wells were drilled by companies that have long since ceased to exist.
With Dave Noel