Sequencing Abandoned Wellsite Reclamations

Thiessen, Ronald James

Sequencing Abandoned Wellsite Reclamations

dc.contributor.advisor	Achari, Gopal
dc.contributor.author	Thiessen, Ronald James
dc.contributor.committeemember	Jergeas, George Farage
dc.contributor.committeemember	Gupta, Anil
dc.contributor.committeemember	Chen, Bing
dc.contributor.committeemember	Dann, Markus R.
dc.date	2018-11
dc.date.accessioned	2018-07-31T15:07:24Z
dc.date.available	2018-07-31T15:07:24Z
dc.date.issued	2018-07-27
dc.description.abstract	Alberta has 69,100 abandoned oil and gas wells. Once a well is abandoned according to provincial regulations, the wellsite must be reclaimed. This means soil and groundwater contamination caused by well drilling and operations must be removed, and the wellsite returned to a condition equivalent to the vegetation, soil quality, and topography of the surrounding land. Provincial regulations currently do not specify a maximum time to reclaim a wellsite after abandonment. Other jurisdictions have similar issues as well. An appeal heard by the Supreme Court of Canada involving federal bankruptcy and insolvency legislation and provincial energy legislation will likely motivate changes in how and when wellsites are moved from abandoned to reclaimed status. Assuming these changes will occur and since concurrently reclaiming all abandoned wellsites is not practical, this thesis presents a method of prioritising abandoned wellsite reclamations based on indicators of negative economic, environmental, and social impacts. This practical method can be adapted to similar problems elsewhere around the globe. Using publicly available data on wellsite reclamation costs, environmental liability as defined in Canadian accounting guidance is considered an indicator of negative economic impact. Property value reduction is also treated as a negative economic impact indicator and land transfer data from the provincial land titles office is referenced. The adverse environmental effect of an abandoned wellsite is a negative environmental impact indicator and is estimated using preliminary quantitative risk assessment methods. Data supporting this assessment is from publicly available environmental reports on completed wellsite reclamations. Adverse public responses to abandoned wellsites are treated as indicators of negative social impacts and land damage and compensation claims by landowners, public complaints to the provincial energy regulator, and regulatory orders are referenced. These indicators are analysed by censored data and ordinal logistic regression statistical methods as well as a priori classification techniques. They are combined using partial order methods to yield a wellsite reclamation sequencing model that requires three pieces of readily-available wellsite information. The model is illustrated with information on 100 abandoned wellsites in Alberta. Model validation and regulatory policy recommendations are provided.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Thiessen, R. J. (2018). Sequencing Abandoned Wellsite Reclamations (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32715	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/32715
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/107534
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.faculty	Schulich School of Engineering
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en
dc.publisher.place	Calgary	en
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	wellsite
dc.subject	reclamation
dc.subject	environment
dc.subject	Social
dc.subject	Economic
dc.subject	sustainable
dc.subject.classification	Engineering	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Engineering--Environmental	en_US
dc.title	Sequencing Abandoned Wellsite Reclamations
dc.type	doctoral thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Civil Engineering
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	true