Manitoba's Orphan Wells: A Fraction of Its Neighbours'

Manitoba's oil and gas industry has a relatively small number of orphan wells, with only 31 sites listed as unclaimed in the province's 2025 inventory. This is compared to thousands of orphan wells in other western provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The reasons for this are unclear, but experts suggest it may be due to effective regulation or an historic lack of oversight. Manitoba has roughly 4,000 wells currently producing oil and has quadrupled its number of inspectors in recent years.

According to Mary Kang, an associate professor in civil engineering at McGill University in Montreal, her lab has likely measured the most non-producing wells in the country. However, she notes that nobody in the academic realm is working on the issue in Manitoba.