Critics question commission’s timing on leaking wells report
The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission says it has improved its understanding of leaking natural gas wells since an initial investigation in 2013 that the agency only made public in November.
The commission has tightened regulations, conducted additional field testing and developed more technical guidance for the industry in detecting and stopping well leaks, spokesman Phil Rygg said.
Critics, however, say the multiyear delay in releasing that report is evidence the commission wanted to withhold damaging information. The report concluded the commission “didn’t have an accurate understanding” of the number of leaking wells.
“This is clearly information that ought to have been before the public, particularly given the time around which this report was apparently done,” said Ben Parfitt, a resource-sector researcher for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
In the 2013 report, the commission’s researchers estimated as many as 900 of 9,000 wells drilled in the region around Fort Nelson, mostly using hydraulic fracturing techniques, might have methane leaks, referred to as gas migration.
In 2013, Parfitt said, thenpremier Christy Clark’s government was ramping up promotion of a potential liquefied natural gas industry, which would require a dramatic increase in natural gas production.
Parfitt said the 2013 research only looked at wells in the far northeast, not the Montney Basin, a football-shaped gas formation that stretches across the region around Dawson Creek and into Alberta.
And the research was only “a first look” at potential problems brewing with wells leaking methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide that can cause groundwater contamination, Parfitt said.
“The next step is to do a full analysis of where that gas is moving and what impacts it has had,” he said.
Rygg, in an emailed response to questions, said the commission is continuing its efforts and is directly involved in research with institutions including UBC and Queen’s University.
“The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives refers to the 2013 report as being ‘suppressed’ when in fact it was the result of the commission doing its due diligence to better understand the issue of gas migration, plan next steps for data gathering and potential mitigation efforts,” Rygg wrote.
Rygg said the 900-well figure was based on preliminary data four years ago, but new data is available. As of June, gas leaks associated with 144 wells have been reported to the commission, he said.
In the future, Rygg said, the commission is “moving to even more transparency — as witnessed with the release of this 2013 report.”
Parfitt, however, questioned the timing since it was released only after a journalist with The Tyee obtained a copy and began asking questions about its contents.
Parfitt said he had a similar experience in researching the construction of unauthorized dams in the northeast by drilling companies to hold back water for hydraulic fracturing. After he started asking the commission questions about the structures, it released some of its inspection reports.
The opacity of information is one reason the Centre for Policy Alternatives and a long roster of critics have called for a public inquiry into the industry to investigate what they consider mounting environmental and health problems associated with the natural gas sector.