The Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot has a massive oil well cleanup problem.
Cleanup costs for the more than 40,000 inactive wells in the riding are estimated at $1.5 billion dollars as of 2023, according to research done by TheRockies.Life.
However the number could be much higher as reclamation costs haven’t been updated in a long time, Drew Yewchuk, a public interest lawyer, noted in an interview.
Yewchuk wrote a report earlier this year calculating that the levy the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) raises from industry to pay for cleanup falls an estimated $1.2 billion short.
The provincial government has suggested that they may consider passing costs to Albertans if companies do not follow through with cleanup.
However, the federal government could take measures to force the oil industry to pay for cleanup.
If the next Member of Parliament elected to Battle River-Crowfoot ensures the federal government takes measures to make the industry pay, Albertans could save big.
The feds’ role
In recent years, rather than forcing polluters to pay, the federal government has given industry public money for cleanup.
In 2020, Ottawa gave $1.7 billion to BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan to cover orphaned well cleanup costs. Alberta received $1 billion of this funding.
“Rather than spending the funds on more reclamation work, the major oil companies that undertake the bulk of the work are simply replacing their own spending with federal funding,” notes a 2020 report that calculates the money the federal government gave to the oil and gas industry that year.
The federal government has tools at its disposal to help create a polluters pay model, says Philip Meintzer, co-founder of the Coalition for Responsible Energy. It could increase taxes and royalties for companies who don’t clean up their messes. This money could then be re-invested in cleanup.
By adopting a polluters pay model, wherein industry is responsible for all cleanup costs, federal politicians might ensure money at all levels of government gets used to help Alberta residents rather than oil companies.
Shirking cleanup
Orphan wells are distressing for landowners, says Bill Heidecker, president of the Alberta Surface Rights Federation.
He has several wells on his own property just outside of Coronation, Alberta.
“I’ve got pieces of land that I avoid if I know an energy company is out there. I know I’ll drive by and they’ll be doing something wrong and it’s going to ruin my day,” Heidecker said.
The Alberta Bill of Rights protects landowners’ right to peaceful enjoyment of their property.
The AER is doing little to ensure that landowners’ rights are respected.
“At the rate of cleanup, it’s going to be a decade or two before they get cleaned up,” Heidecker said about Alberta’s abandoned oil wells.
“If they ever get cleaned up properly.”
Heidecker’s biggest concern is initiatives that oil companies are pushing on the provincial government to reduce reclamation standards.
“The rules were in place when these companies drilled the wells and or purchased the wells, right? So they knew full well what the requirements were,” he said.
“You can’t farm it”
Jeff Glazer owns a farm south of Coronation, Alberta. There are multiple oil wells on his land, all of which he’s tried to get cleaned up over the years.
He told TheRockies.Life that the process has been tedious and unsuccessful.
Many companies sell off their assets once the oil gets extracted and the money dries up. Well cleanup is not a top priority for the new owners.
Sometimes, when companies fully abandon responsibility for the well, the Orphan Well Association will step in and clean up. The Orphan Well Association is an industry-funded non profit in charge of cleaning up wells left behind by bankrupt and insolvent oil companies.
“And even the stuff that Orphan Wells has cleaned up, the job is so horrible that you can’t farm it,” Glazer said.
“I can’t think of a piece of land we have that doesn’t have something on it that requires attention.”
Some companies remain highly profitable but simply don’t clean up their wells.
Tamarack Valley Energy, who owns a cluster of abandoned wells south of Coronation, sold over $400 million worth of oil and natural gas in the first quarter of 2025 alone.
While Glazer supports oil and gas development, he believes more should be done to ensure oil companies clean up their messes.
“We should have a government that makes these people pay the bill,” he said.
