Crews start work to cap historic well leaking methane southwest of Calgary

Alberta's Orphan Well Association (OWA) started decommissioning a historic well near Diamond Valley, Alta., southwest of Calgary, on Friday.

The Katana 06-12 well in Foothills County, just outside Diamond Valley's northwest town boundary, was originally drilled in 1930, but never produced oil or gas.

The site leaks a small amount of methane every day — about the same amount of gas a fully powered barbecue uses in an hour, according to the OWA.

Two attempts have already been made to decommission the well, but both failed, because of the complexity of the project.

"This site actually pre-dates the Orphan Well Association," said Lars DePauw, president of the OWA. "It has basically been on our inventory of projects since about the early 2000s … It does have a complicated history." 

Alberta's energy regulator tried to fix the leak in 1996, but instead "left it in a more challenging state," the OWA told Foothills County Council at their meeting on Jan. 8.

The OWA tried to decommission the well in 2021, but the attempt fell short because crews used undersized equipment.

"We are bringing in a drilling rig because we need that bigger horsepower to be able to do this work," said DePauw. "So there's gonna be some disruption, just mostly from a noise and light component."

Equipment will be running 24 hours a day until the work is finished, but overnight activity will be kept to a minimum, according to the OWA.

Mayor cranking Netflix volume to deal with project noise

A large bale fence has been installed to block some of the drilling equipment's noise and light pollution from reaching nearby homes. 

Diamond Valley Mayor Barry Crane lives within a few hundred meters of the site.

"My evening, full-moon lit, beautiful field view is going to be illuminated with 500 Watt light bulbs for about two weeks, 24/7. And with a grinding noise to boot," said Crane. 

But decommissioning orphaned wells should be a priority for all Albertans and local companies, Crane added. 

"It's only going to be temporary, just a couple of weeks. And the service that they're doing is, like I said, crucial," he said. "I would put up with two weeks of racket any day of the week to know that [the OWA] is getting things done and creating safe environments for us."

So far the mayor hasn't heard any neighbours complaining about the disruptions. 

"Facebook, of course, will always be fun to watch here in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure some insomnia will be brought up," said Crane.

"But I'll just close the blinds and turn up the volume on Netflix."

Decommissioning work is expected to continue for about two weeks, but the project timeline could be extended if crews run into any problems underground.