Area II Fall Spill Exercise
September 26, 2018
AGENDA
- Lunch
- Welcome
- Introduction of Area II Steering Committee
- Membership Review
- Case Study/Lessons Learned: Well Blowout in Acheson Alberta, Emergency Response and Environmental Management
- On December 12, 2004, a natural gas well blowout occurred during routine well servicing at an Acclaim Energy wellsite located in a rural residential area of Parkland County in Alberta, adjacent to the Enoch Cree First Nation Reserve and just west of the Edmonton City Limit. Slightly sour gas and formation fluids (primarily salt water, with a small amount of oil) flowed to surface outside the well casing at a rate of 2,000 m3 per day, eroding a large crater and creating a significant spill containment challenge. The well was finally brought under control after flowing for 30 days. Environmental monitoring and site remediation activities continued for several months afterwards.
This presentation will focus on the valuable lessons learned from this incident and cover the emergency management measures, air quality monitoring, and soil and groundwater management systems employed in response to the spill, which lead the Alberta government’s investigation team to conclude, “Despite the high profile of the blowout and the impacts to nearby residents, the EUB found that public safety was never compromised during the incident and there have been no lasting environmental impacts from the blowout.”
- On December 12, 2004, a natural gas well blowout occurred during routine well servicing at an Acclaim Energy wellsite located in a rural residential area of Parkland County in Alberta, adjacent to the Enoch Cree First Nation Reserve and just west of the Edmonton City Limit. Slightly sour gas and formation fluids (primarily salt water, with a small amount of oil) flowed to surface outside the well casing at a rate of 2,000 m3 per day, eroding a large crater and creating a significant spill containment challenge. The well was finally brought under control after flowing for 30 days. Environmental monitoring and site remediation activities continued for several months afterwards.
Area II Spill Exercise
Date: September 26, 2018
Time: 12:00 pm
Place: Coleville Hall, Coleville, SK
83 Members in Attendance
59 Companies in Attendance
- Mark Kuss calls the meeting to order at 12:40 pm, Graham Daviduk, seconds, all in favor, carried.
- Mark Kuss reviewed agenda and introduced the steering committee.
- Jennifer Miller, Admin, reviewed membership letters that were sent out and how many we have received.
- Presentation from Paul Kelly, B.Sc., P.Chem. Director, Health & Safety, Plains Midstream Canada & Michelle Cotton, P.Ag.,
President, Solstice Canada Corp.- a. Part One – The Incident
- i. Well Description
- Drilled in 1952 by Imperial Oil
- First brought onto production in 1962
- Slightly sour – 225 ppm H2S
- Acquired by Acclaim Energy 26-May-2004
- ii. Location Setting
- Parkland County
- Mostly Agricultural & Rural Residential
- 200 m north of Enoch Cree First Nation
- 700 m west of Edmonton City Limit
- iii. The Blowout
- Routine Workover – acid stimulation
- Pulled tubing on 11-Dec 2004
- Wellhead pressure reading on 12-Dec-2004
- Sudden downhole casing failure
- Uncontrolled off-set release of gas and well fluids – primarily salt water with some crude oil
- 150 joints of tubing fell from service rig derrick – disappearing into a rapidly forming crater
- b. Part Two – Initial Response
- i. Notification & Evacuation
- Blowout occurred at 8:20 AM
- EUB called at 8:35 AM
- EUB inspector arrived at site at 10:00 AM
- The one window reporting system failed, not all stakeholders were contacted
- 700 residents evacuated from Enoch First Nation
- i. Notification & Evacuation
- i. Well Description
- a. Part One – The Incident
- ii. Initial Response
- Activated their ERP
- Response resources were rapidly deployed
- EUB presence established early
- Two insurance policies
- Blow out
- General liability
- c. Part Three Control
- i. Surface Kill Attempts
- Required entry via existing surface well equipment
- Efforts made to stabilize swaying wellhead
- Dec 13, 2004 – Unplanned ignition
- Dec 14, 2004 – Fire extinguished
- On Dec 16, 2004 – well purposely ignited
- ii. Adjacent Well Securement
- Crater continued to expand
- Nearby well surface facilities were removed
- 102 injected with cement on 11-Jan-2005
- 102 Pump Jack removed
- iii. Well Control
- Two relief wells were drilled
- 103 NW to intercept and mill into the 100 production casing
- 104 SE to drill into the Leduc formation to relieve pressure in the formation
- Well was finally brought under control on Jan 10, 2005
- i. Surface Kill Attempts
- d. Part Four – Containment
- i. Fluid Containment
- Fluids flowed at a rate of 80-100 m3/hour
- Crater restricted access to wellhead
- Fluid containment became a major priority
- Trenches and pits were constructed
- ii. Fluid Disposal
- Fluids filled pits rapidly requiring fast disposal
- 160 vacuum trucks worked 24 hours/day
- 22 separate disposal wells/caverns used
- Local facilities reached processing capacity
- Alternative options were explored
- Flocculation – failed due to tight emulsion
- Centrifugation – failed due to inconsistent feed quality
- Cells constructed at Acheson Gas Plant treatment pad with contaminated soil and plastic liners
- Reduction to 15 vacuum trucks
- Use of in-house disposal well
- Fluids filled pits rapidly requiring fast disposal
- i. Fluid Containment
- e. Part Five – Abandonment
- i. Finding Good Casing
- The casing breach was deeper than the crater
- Excavation required far below the water table
- Subsurface silt/sand was very unstable
- Well point dewatering system was deployed
- Custom trenching box built to access casing
- ii. Well Abandonment
- Crater partially backfilled.
- Dewatering system continued for stability
- 12 m3/hour of groundwater produced
- i. Finding Good Casing
- f. Part Six – Monitoring
- i. Air Quality
- Monitoring began immediately close to wellhead
- Monitoring units deployed
- Three mobile monitoring units added
- Eight fixed monitoring units added
- EUB dispatched two mobile units
- AENV dispatched mobile air monitoring laboratory
- ii. Ground Water Quality
- Unconfined sand aquifer
- Just below surface
- Domestic water wells
- 30 water wells tested within 2 km
- 3 monitoring wells installed on site
- No groundwater impacts found in domestic wells
- No groundwater impacts found in monitoring wells
- Geoprobe found impacts around wellbore to 18 m
- Well point dewatering assisted recovery
- Groundwater monitoring plan developed
- Unconfined sand aquifer
- i. Air Quality
- g. Part Seven – Restoration
- i. Soil Management
- Waste characterization
- Remediate impacts from the unsaturated zone
- Under stockpiles & traffic areas
- Site reclamation
- ii. Soil Sampling
- 571 samples collected and field screened
- 122 samples submitted for laboratory verification
- iii. Evacuation Sampling
- 900 samples collected
- 300 analytical verification
- iv. Soil Management
- Clean & impacted soils handled separately
- Impacted soil was landfilled
- Total volume of impacted soil handled ~ 195,000 m3
- Total volume of clean soil handled ~ 25,000 m3
- All impacted soils in the unsaturated zone removed
- i. Soil Management
- h. Questions
- i. How many people where on site
- 300 but no more than 100 people on site at one time
- ii. How much impact did this procedure have on your policies
- Procedures around acquisitions needed to be updated.
- Not everyone should be an incident commander
- Changed procedures around well servicing.
- i. How many people where on site
- Adjourned at 2:06 pm.
- Membership Sign In Sheet
NAME | COMPANY |
Derek Odland | Secure Energy |
David Brittner | Bellatrix Exploration |
Brian Longmire | Novus Energy |
Micheal Marcdavid | ISH Energy |
Robert Keller | ISH Energy |
Marlan Thompson | Teine Energy |
Tyler Birn | Caltex Resources |
Gerard Sieben | Caltex Resources |
Bryan Evans | Veradon Energy |
Andy YU | Aeraden Energy Corp |
John Dahl | Crescent Point Energy |
Scott Fullerton | Crescent Point Energy |
Marshall Buttar | ISH Energy |
Ron Reece | Broadview Energy |
Ron Reece | Ravens Cross Energy |
Jake Semilet | Plains Midstream Canada |
John Burt | Zargon Oil & Gas |
Micheal Psovsky | Dodsland Oil Processors |
Troy Tryhen | Dodsland Oil Processors |
Brent Tymchuk | ISH Energy |
Grant Sittler | Steelhead Petroleum |
David Witzaney | Respsol |
Doug Bredy | CNRL |
Steve Lee | Leeco Resources |
Wallace Wang | MER |
Paul Tessier | Baytex |
Dylan Cole | Baytex |
Curtis Gette | Bow River |
Mike Cholin | Teine Energy |
Les Cook | CNRL |
Mark Kuss | Teine Energy |
Mark Kuss | Steel Reef |
Cori Schmidt | Novus Energy |
Cori Schmidt | Raven Resources |
Cori Schmidt | Schmidt Oil |
Cori Schmidt | SSSS Oil |
Earl Kaye | Gear Energy |
Nathan Ward | ISH Energy |
Ken Jones | ISH Energy |
Graham Daviduk | Crescent Point |
Carey Roesler | Tamarack Valley |
Carey Roesler | Bounty Development |
Carey Roelser | Fire sky Energy |
Brent Schreger | Sphere Energy |
Mitch Scherger | Sphere Energy |
Ken Warwick | XTO |
Dean Scherr | Richelhoff Resources |
Terry Murphy | Plains Midstream |
Byron Wildman | ISH Energy |
Len Jorgenson | ISH Energy |
Kevin Mackrell | Teine Energy |
John Knutson | Longhorn Oil & Gas |
Kirk Weber | Cona Resources |
Kyle Prosser | Secure Energy |
Charlie Schell | Secure Energy |
Dan Dore | Tamarack Valley |
Robin Jenn | NAL Resources |
Chad Annuk | NAL Resources |
Ryan Roth | NAL Resources |
Jay Scarff | CNRL |
Andy Ortman | Tamarack Valley |
Tiffany Lowe | MER |
Ryan Moore | MER |
Brent Mclay | Longhorn Oil & Gas |
Kyle Koch | Baytex Energy |
Cliff Johnson | Tamarack Valley |
Tracy Kuhn | Pearl Resources |
Brett Becker | Rocky River |
Dave Becker | Enhance Energy |
Curtis Bahm | Inter pipeline |
Trevor Neumeier | Inter pipeline |
Scott Reiman | Tamarack Valley |
Cale Borschneck | Tervita |
Adam Bowden | Vermilion Energy |
Donna Brotzel | Zelmar Energy |
Bobby McLean | Whitecap Resources |
Bobby McLean | Kaisen Energy |
Barry Knight | CAJ Resources Ltd. |
Barry Knight | Kanmar Resources Ltd. |
Barry Knight | HD Energy Inc. |
Barry Knight | Ice Hole Oil Co |
Barry Knight | Crocus Oil Ltd |
Barry Knight | Talls-Tar Energy Ltd. |
Ryan Cooke | Tervita/Newalta |
Michelle Cotton | Solstice Canada |
Paul Kelly | Plains Midstream |
Wes Johnson | Bonavista Energy |
Wes Johnson | Tamarack Valley |
Elliott Cline | Gibson Energy |
Mike Schmidt | Zelmar Energy |
Clyde Mack | Alta Gas |
Donna Neumeier | Smitty’s Farms |
Dwight Brost | Pele Energy Inc |
Dwight Brost | Audax Investments ltd |
Jocelan Lundqust | CNRL |
Bryce Morland | Rolling Hills |
Neil Getz | Vermilion Energy |
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