The unconventional has become conventional when it comes to drilling in Alberta.
That was the message of Kevin Heffernan, president of the Canadian Society of Unconventional Resources (CSUR), at the seminar put on by the Freehold Owners Association on Saturday.
Whereas only eight per cent of oil and gas wells licensed in Alberta in 2008 were horizontal, for the first nine months of 2012, 74 per cent of all wells were horizontal.
“That’s almost a complete flip of where and how industry is developing its resources. Those horizontal wells are conventional. They are routine,” said Heffernan.
To get at oil and gas reservoirs deep into the Earth, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is used. Fracking is the process of fracturing rock formations with high-pressure fluids to allow natural gas and oil molecules to flow out through horizontal wells.
While Heffernan touted the benefits of fracking as a way of getting at those hard to reach resources, much of the audience was skeptical. For those people, independent investigative journalist and author Andrew Nikiforuk, one of the seminar’s four panelists, was the voice of reason.
Citing instances from the United States and some closer to home relating to groundwater contamination from fracking, Nikiforuk said much science is lacking on the safety of the very energy and often water-intensive process.
“We’ve captured and picked the good fruit, and now we’re at the bottom of the barrel, looking for what’s left, and having to use more energy to get there,” said Nikiforuk.
He cited a 2009 study by two Alberta scientists that found that wells used in fracking typically experienced leakage rates as high as 60 per cent as they age, increasing the chances of groundwater contamination and methane leakage.
While the risks are there, industry regulation is strong, said Bob Willard, senior policy advisor with the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB). For example, he said, fracking is prohibited within 200 metres of private water wells.
He also said the fracking process is transparent, with the ERCB publishing a list of industry non-compliance, updated every month on its website. Disclosure of chemical additives used in fracking is also now mandatory in Alberta and B.C.
Overall, the chances of fractures migrating into underground aquifers is very low, said Alberta Environment groundwater policy specialist Robert George.
George said in the future the goal will be to use more saline than potable water in the process, but that at present, the cost is prohibitive.
mfish@www.reddeeradvocate.com