Two companies linked to city rank low on new reporting system for pipelines
Two companies related to the City of Medicine Hat’s energy interests check in near the bottom in terms of a new pipeline safety reporting procedure.
Chinook Energy, which sold the Manyberries oil field and gathering system to the city in 2012, appears to be the worst, though that translates to a single incident on a very small pipeline loop last year.
Enerplus, which operates locally in partnership with the City’s gas production also ranked low. That’s because of two major spills in non-city interests near Brooks, and a “medium consequence” incident in a City of Medicine Hat field near the city.
Brad Maynes, the city’s general manager of its Natural Gas and Petroleum Resources division told the News that pipeline safety is very important, and the city-owned and operated 2,200kilometre system is performing well.
“In general, given how much pipe we have and given the age of that infrastructure, we’re actually doing quite well,” he said.
In 2016 four “quite minor” leaks on city lines were found via city inspection program, and were related to minor corrosion on older lines. A fifth incident report was filed when another utility company ruptured a city line while working south of the city near Dauntless.
“It’s mostly in our older gas fields and that’s around Medicine Hat, and they were detected through ongoing inspection processes in which we regularly look at our lines.”
The most serious local incident occurred in late August, when a line filled with chemicallaced drilling injection water ruptured east on Medicine Hat in the Glauc C field.
Maynes told the News that Enerplus, as the operating partner in the field, contained the spill quickly, it was limited to the surface and the city is confident in their response.
On Wednesday the Alberta Energy Regulator launched a new reporting system that sorts compliance using the number of incidents per 1,000 kilometres of pipe. That is a common industry benchmark, though the AER notes on very short systems the result may appear amplified.
For example, Chinook recorded one incident in 2016, but only operates 19 kilometres of pipeline. The incident itself was considered “low consequence” and less then 1,000 litres of petroleum, or one cubic metre of gas, was released.
They top the list however when companies are compared by the 1,000 kilometre standard.
Maynes said that the network formerly owned by Chinook at Manyberries is performing as expected without any issues.
“Since we’ve owned the portion of the field we’ve not had any incidents,” said Maynes. “We look at that area as being quite reliable from a predictability perspective.”
Much of the infrastructure there dates to the 1980s and 1990s and was installed and operated by a number of companies over the years.
Much of it is newer than city owned infrastructure elsewhere, said Maynes.
The records listing pipeline reports for thousands of energy production companies in Alberta are listed in a database on the website of the Alberta Energy Regulator.
Enerplus, with 2,176 kilometres province-wide, reported 10 incidents, including four of a serious nature, in 2016.
Two, both near Brooks, resulted in a total spill of 440,000 litres of chemical-laced water used in drilling.
In comparison, Canadian Natural Resources reported 67 incidents, but operates 67,000 kilometres of pipeline.
The City of Medicine Hat, with 2,200 kilometres of pipeline itself recorded five low consequence incidents that were reported to the regulator in 2016.
The city reported six spills in 2015, including one of “medium consequence.”
“In general, given how much pipe we have and given the age of that infrastructure, we’re actually doing quite well.” – Brad Maynes, general manager of Natural Gas and Petroleum
Resources division