Orphan Oil Wells Pile Up as Alberta Landowners Take Regulator to Court

Amanda Kamps has been waiting seven years to see her property fully cleaned up from an orphan oil and gas site. When she bought the land, a company responsible for the site went under just three months later.

The Alberta Energy Regulator designated the site as an orphan, making the Orphan Well Association responsible for decommissioning and reclaiming it. The association is funded almost entirely by industry through an annual levy set by the regulator.

Kamps received a letter saying that her site would be completed this spring or summer, but now that fall is approaching, she hasn't heard anything else. She's not alone - over 7,300 wells are in the Orphan Well Association's inventory, with estimates suggesting it will cost $1.66 billion to address them all.

A group of Alberta landowners and organizations has taken the regulator to court over how this system is funded. They argue that the regulator hasn't adequately funded the system and hasn't followed requirements under the Oil and Gas Conservation Act when setting the annual levy.