Area II Fall Spill Exercise

September 26, 2018

AGENDA

  1. Lunch
  2. Welcome
  3. Introduction of Area II Steering Committee
  4. Membership Review
  5. Case Study/Lessons Learned:  Well Blowout in Acheson Alberta, Emergency Response and Environmental Management
    1. 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.”

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

  1. Mark Kuss calls the meeting to order at 12:40 pm, Graham Daviduk, seconds, all in favor, carried.
  1. Mark Kuss reviewed agenda and introduced the steering committee.
  1. Jennifer Miller, Admin, reviewed membership letters that were sent out and how many we have received.
  1. Presentation from Paul Kelly, B.Sc., P.Chem. Director, Health & Safety, Plains Midstream Canada & Michelle Cotton, P.Ag.,
    President, Solstice Canada Corp.
    1. a. Part One – The Incident
      1. i. Well Description
        1. Drilled in 1952 by Imperial Oil
        2. First brought onto production in 1962
        3. Slightly sour – 225 ppm H2S
        4. Acquired by Acclaim Energy 26-May-2004
        5. ii. Location Setting
          1. Parkland County
          2. Mostly Agricultural & Rural Residential
          3. 200 m north of Enoch Cree First Nation
          4. 700 m west of Edmonton City Limit
        6. iii.     The Blowout
          1. Routine Workover – acid stimulation
          2. Pulled tubing on 11-Dec 2004
          3. Wellhead pressure reading on 12-Dec-2004
          4. Sudden downhole casing failure
          5. Uncontrolled off-set release of gas and well fluids – primarily salt water with some crude oil
          6. 150 joints of tubing fell from service rig derrick – disappearing into a rapidly forming crater
      2. b. Part Two – Initial Response
        1. i. Notification & Evacuation
          1. Blowout occurred at 8:20 AM
          2. EUB called at 8:35 AM
          3. EUB inspector arrived at site at 10:00 AM
          4. The one window reporting system failed, not all stakeholders were contacted
          5. 700 residents evacuated from Enoch First Nation
  1. ii. Initial Response
    1. Activated their ERP
    2. Response resources were rapidly deployed
    3. EUB presence established early
    4. Two insurance policies
      1. Blow out
      2. General liability
      3. c. Part Three Control
        1. i. Surface Kill Attempts
          1. Required entry via existing surface well equipment
          2. Efforts made to stabilize swaying wellhead
          3. Dec 13, 2004 – Unplanned ignition
          4. Dec 14, 2004 – Fire extinguished
          5. On Dec 16, 2004 – well purposely ignited
        2. ii. Adjacent Well Securement
          1. Crater continued to expand
          2. Nearby well surface facilities were removed
          3. 102 injected with cement on 11-Jan-2005
          4. 102 Pump Jack removed
        3. iii. Well Control
          1. Two relief wells were drilled
          2. 103 NW to intercept and mill into the 100 production casing
          3. 104 SE to drill into the Leduc formation to relieve pressure in the formation
          4. Well was finally brought under control on Jan 10, 2005
      4. d. Part Four – Containment
        1. i. Fluid Containment
          1. Fluids flowed at a rate of 80-100 m3/hour
          2. Crater restricted access to wellhead
          3. Fluid containment became a major priority
          4. Trenches and pits were constructed
        2. ii. Fluid Disposal
          1. Fluids filled pits rapidly requiring fast disposal
            1. 160 vacuum trucks worked 24 hours/day
            2. 22 separate disposal wells/caverns used
            3. Local facilities reached processing capacity
          2. Alternative options were explored
            1. Flocculation – failed due to tight emulsion
            2. Centrifugation – failed due to inconsistent feed quality
          3. Cells constructed at Acheson Gas Plant treatment pad with contaminated soil and plastic liners
          4. Reduction to 15 vacuum trucks
          5. Use of in-house disposal well
      5. e. Part Five – Abandonment
        1. i. Finding Good Casing
          1. The casing breach was deeper than the crater
          2. Excavation required far below the water table
          3. Subsurface silt/sand was very unstable
          4. Well point dewatering system was deployed
          5. Custom trenching box built to access casing
        2. ii. Well Abandonment
          1. Crater partially backfilled.
          2. Dewatering system continued for stability
          3. 12 m3/hour of groundwater produced
      6. f. Part Six – Monitoring
        1. i. Air Quality
          1. Monitoring began immediately close to wellhead
          2. Monitoring units deployed
            1. Three mobile monitoring units added
            2. Eight fixed monitoring units added
            3. EUB dispatched two mobile units
            4. AENV dispatched mobile air monitoring laboratory
        2. ii. Ground Water Quality
          1. Unconfined sand aquifer
            1. Just below surface
          2. Domestic water wells
            1. 30 water wells tested within 2 km
            2. 3 monitoring wells installed on site
          3. No groundwater impacts found in domestic wells
          4. No groundwater impacts found in monitoring wells
          5. Geoprobe found impacts around wellbore to 18 m
          6. Well point dewatering assisted recovery
          7. Groundwater monitoring plan developed
      7. g. Part Seven – Restoration
        1. i. Soil Management
          1. Waste characterization
          2. Remediate impacts from the unsaturated zone
          3. Under stockpiles & traffic areas
          4. Site reclamation
        2. ii. Soil Sampling
          1. 571 samples collected and field screened
          2. 122 samples submitted for laboratory verification
        3. iii. Evacuation Sampling
          1. 900 samples collected
          2. 300 analytical verification
        4. iv. Soil Management
          1. Clean & impacted soils handled separately
          2. Impacted soil was landfilled
          3. Total volume of impacted soil handled ~ 195,000 m3
          4. Total volume of clean soil handled ~ 25,000 m3
          5. All impacted soils in the unsaturated zone removed
      8. h. Questions
        1. i.     How many people where on site
          1. 300 but no more than 100 people on site at one time
        2. ii.     How much impact did this procedure have on your policies
          1. Procedures around acquisitions needed to be updated.
          2. Not everyone should be an incident commander
          3. Changed procedures around well servicing.
  1. Adjourned at 2:06 pm.
  2. Membership Sign In Sheet
NAMECOMPANY
Derek OdlandSecure Energy
David BrittnerBellatrix Exploration
Brian LongmireNovus Energy
Micheal MarcdavidISH Energy
Robert KellerISH Energy
Marlan ThompsonTeine Energy
Tyler BirnCaltex Resources
Gerard SiebenCaltex Resources
Bryan EvansVeradon Energy
Andy YUAeraden Energy Corp
John DahlCrescent Point Energy
Scott FullertonCrescent Point Energy
Marshall ButtarISH Energy
Ron ReeceBroadview Energy
Ron ReeceRavens Cross Energy
Jake SemiletPlains Midstream Canada
John BurtZargon Oil & Gas
Micheal PsovskyDodsland Oil Processors
Troy TryhenDodsland Oil Processors
Brent TymchukISH Energy
Grant SittlerSteelhead Petroleum
David WitzaneyRespsol
Doug BredyCNRL
Steve LeeLeeco Resources
Wallace WangMER
Paul TessierBaytex
Dylan ColeBaytex
Curtis GetteBow River
Mike CholinTeine Energy
Les CookCNRL
Mark KussTeine Energy
Mark KussSteel Reef
Cori SchmidtNovus Energy
Cori SchmidtRaven Resources
Cori SchmidtSchmidt Oil
Cori SchmidtSSSS Oil
Earl KayeGear Energy
Nathan WardISH Energy
Ken JonesISH Energy
Graham DavidukCrescent Point
Carey RoeslerTamarack Valley
Carey RoeslerBounty Development
Carey RoelserFire sky Energy
Brent SchregerSphere Energy
Mitch SchergerSphere Energy
Ken WarwickXTO
Dean ScherrRichelhoff Resources
Terry MurphyPlains Midstream
Byron WildmanISH Energy
Len JorgensonISH Energy
Kevin MackrellTeine Energy
John KnutsonLonghorn Oil & Gas
Kirk WeberCona Resources
Kyle ProsserSecure Energy
Charlie SchellSecure Energy
Dan DoreTamarack Valley
Robin JennNAL Resources
Chad AnnukNAL Resources
Ryan RothNAL Resources
Jay ScarffCNRL
Andy OrtmanTamarack Valley
Tiffany LoweMER
Ryan MooreMER
Brent MclayLonghorn Oil & Gas
Kyle KochBaytex Energy
Cliff JohnsonTamarack Valley
Tracy KuhnPearl Resources
Brett BeckerRocky River
Dave BeckerEnhance Energy
Curtis BahmInter pipeline
Trevor NeumeierInter pipeline
Scott ReimanTamarack Valley
Cale BorschneckTervita
Adam BowdenVermilion Energy
Donna BrotzelZelmar Energy
Bobby McLeanWhitecap Resources
Bobby McLeanKaisen Energy
Barry KnightCAJ Resources Ltd.
Barry KnightKanmar Resources Ltd.
Barry KnightHD Energy Inc.
Barry KnightIce Hole Oil Co
Barry KnightCrocus Oil Ltd
Barry KnightTalls-Tar Energy Ltd.
Ryan CookeTervita/Newalta
Michelle CottonSolstice Canada
Paul KellyPlains Midstream
Wes JohnsonBonavista Energy
Wes JohnsonTamarack Valley
Elliott ClineGibson Energy
Mike SchmidtZelmar Energy
Clyde MackAlta Gas
Donna NeumeierSmitty’s Farms
Dwight BrostPele Energy Inc
Dwight BrostAudax Investments ltd
Jocelan LundqustCNRL
Bryce MorlandRolling Hills
Neil GetzVermilion Energy
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