Episode Details

In this episode, I lead a discussion on the current state of oil and gas liabilities with guests Mark Doran, Justin Mikulka, and Sarah Stogner. You hear us explore the scale of the problem, the inadequacies of current regulatory frameworks, and the financial and environmental challenges posed by abandoned wells and infrastructure. The conversation highlights the need for better enforcement, innovative solutions for well closure, and a shift in public policy to address these long-term liabilities. The guests emphasize the importance of public awareness and the role of landowners in advocating for responsible industry practices.

Welcome and Introductions to Justin Mikulka, Sarah Stogner, Mark Dorin, and North America’s Oil and Gas Liabilities

Alex:

Welcome to the Gravity Well Podcast with Alex and Jenny. You break down heavy ideas with us at The Gravity Well to understand their complexities and connections. Our mission is to work through dilemmas with you in conversation and process making our world a better place for all creatures.

Jenny:

We acknowledge that we live on the traditional territories of treaties, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10. The ancestral homelands of diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Metis Peoples whose ancestors have walked this land since time immemorial and whose histories, languages, and cultures continue to influence our vibrant communities. Our community agreement asks for respectful listening to ideas, genuine participation and openness to different perspectives in conflict. Let’s rely on our Six W system and live participant feedback. What matters most is finding common ground.

Alex:

Want to know more? Check out thegravitywell.net and remember to smash that like button and hit subscribe.

Jenny:

Welcome. I’m glad to have Mark Dorin here, my partner in the Polluter Pay Federation. Justin Mikulka, the director of communication at Oilfield Witness and Sarah Stonger, the District Attorney elect for the 143rd Judicial District of Texas. She’s an entrepreneur, lawyer, and mom like me. Thank you guys. Welcome to the program. That was our introduction. Again, I’ll have to say an apology from Alex. He is getting over Covid and he’s unavailable for this conversation. What Alex would’ve brought to this is a good way to make sure that we’re not talking in non-general pop speak. We sometimes fall into a lingo that other people don’t know in this space. Cut and caps, things like that that we say about wells. He’s a good way of making sure that we’re using words that everybody gets.

Anyway, we’ll try and just honour that for him while he’s not here. But let’s start with some introductions. What we want to talk about today is the current state of oil and gas liabilities. When I say liabilities, that is the wells pipelines and facilities and waste facilities associated with oil and gas. I’m grateful to have some voices from the United States. Mark and I spend a lot of time talking about this issue in Alberta. I’ll talk about Alberta first in terms of grounding on the size and scale of the issuer we are, we have 500,000 wells in Alberta and associated facilities and pipelines with that. But then we have oil sands. The oil sands make up in terms of liability. It’s a 50-50 spread. We have 50% of our estimated liability in those conventional assets, those wells pipelines and facilities.

And the other 50% that is 130 billion on each half of that coin is the oil sands itself. And that’s a hundred thousand hectares on its own with 1.7 billion worth of wastewater associated with it. That’s the scale of the issue in our province, and I can speak a little bit, I worked in both BC and Saskatchewan as well. BC is about 15% of that size and growing, and then Saskatchewan is about 10% of that size. Very different scales of issues and Mark can attest that there are wells across the country and we can talk about some of the state of the history as well. Mark, mayb