Designing easy-to-execute emergency response plans (ERPs) will be vital to keep the peace between oil and gas companies and the communities where they work, industry observers say.
The seeds of conflict between landowners and "very intense" oil and gas development are being sown because the risks are real, says Chris Severson-Baker, director of the Energy Watch program with the Pembina Institute of Appropriate Development. He says conflicts such as the one swirling around Compton Petroleum's desire to drill sour-gas wells just southeast of Calgary, and its ability to develop and execute sound ERPs, are sure to escalate in Alberta in the coming years.
"Instead of flareups in various parts of the province, where you get a situation that flares up and then dies back down and flares up somewhere else and dies back down, you'll start to see a widescale response to what's happening out there," Severson-Baker says. "Individual landowners have relatively limited power, but if lots and lots of landowners were objecting for the same reasons, that would have a really strong impact."
Compton has until Jan. 1 to present an emergency response plan encompassing a 9.7-km zone to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) if it hopes to drill four additional sour-gas wells in an area where two producers already exist.
Well-development requirements are subject to input from local authorities such as the City of Calgary, the Calgary Health Region (CHR) and the municipal districts of Rocky View and Foothills. The CHR has stated it would seek an order under the Public Health Act to shut the project down if Compton doesn't address public health and safety concerns.
Compton Petroleum vice-president Derek Longfield says his company received a letter from the city last week stating it would start drafting a training and information plan, even though the city is also appealing the board's decision.
"Both the city and the health region don't agree with the decision, so they don't want to work with us, but the city has come a little bit off that position," he says.
"We're happy to see the city come 'round to say they'll at least start talking, so that's a step in the right direction."
The two existing wells were first drilled in 1969-70, but remained "stranded" until 1984, when they were finally connected to a pipeline that had a 15-year term. When the company sought to renew the line, residents began to object and that's when, says Longfield, the board announced it was prepared to grant the pipeline extension if Compton found ways to deplete the reservoir faster.
"We could continue to produce these two wells for a long, long time, but the truth of the matter is these wells are very flat producers - they don't decline very much at all," Longfield says.
The VP adds that he's confident the company can "build an emergency response plan that's effective and ... acceptable to the EUB."
Severson-Baker has his doubts, however. He says an ERP design must be simple if it is to be activated quickly, and if it can't be done quickly, it will fail to provide the necessary protection.
He wonders if, given that more than 100,000 people fall within the emergency response zone's 9.7-km radius, people can be properly alerted in a timely fashion should something go wrong.
"It's usually a case where you have a few people and you can get to them by truck, deliver the message directly and get them out of there. If you have too many people where you can't do that, you can't guarantee your emergency response plan is going to protect everyone."
The Pembina Institute notes the Compton case isn't the only sour-gas controversy brewing in Alberta.
The non-profit organization is working with residents in the Drayton Valley region - represented by the Pembina Agricultural Protection Association (PAPA) - concerned about numerous sour-gas wells encroaching on their communities and industry's ability to deal with an emergency situation.
PAPA is calling for an assessment of effects from oil and gas development based on a reasonable regional development scenario and the application of best practices in all new sour-gas projects.
"They want to be able to comment on it period at the regional level and they want to have good information about the risks and the impacts at the regional level," Severson-Baker says.
The EUB says more than 100 sour-gas wells are within a few kilometres of the city limits. The board also notes that it has rejected a number of applications because they have failed to meet the proper criteria.
EUB spokesman Bob Curran says the board continues to beef up sour-gas regulations and adds that Alberta already boasts the toughest regulations in any jurisdiction.
"They're the strictest in the world, and Alberta is widely regarded as a world leader in sour-gas regulation," Curran says. "We regularly have delegations coming in ... from across the globe to understand how to deal with sour-gas development in their particular area because Alberta has set such a high standard for sour-gas development."
David Price, vice-president of Western Canada for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), says industry takes community safety seriously because it has "a social licence to operate, and because of this we need to maintain that so we need to ensure there is trust and confidence in the industry to do the job right."
He says the association has published for its members the Guide for Effective Public Involvement, which is a "how-to" manual for communicating with communities so they understand the nature of the industry. It urges companies to communicate early and communicate often with easily understood information; with respect to ERPs, CAPP's credo is: Plan to prevent it and then plan in the event of it.
"In front of the whole emergency response plan process, make sure it doesn't happen. But, because of the risk, it's important to make sure you're prepared for it as well," Price says. "I think our industry is one of the leaders in terms of emergency preparedness and planning for that."
CAPP and other industry players say they acknowledge the importance of drafting an airtight ERP, and that's why the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) has a new course in the works to address that need.
Late last month, NAIT received approval for the emergency response management diploma program. The two-year course - set to begin next fall - will be offered online and include a pair of practicums.
Carl Enright, NAIT manager of calendar programming, says the need for such a program presented itself during peer-group meetings with the energy, forestry and transportation industries in 2004.
"They said: 'Why don't you do something around emergency management?' We said: 'Oh, let's take a look,'" Enright says. "There is a shortage of those skills and credentials in industry - that was made very clear from the peer-group meetings ... and of course the number of emergency situations is increasingly getting a higher profile in the public mind."
Meanwhile, Baker-Severson says sour gas won't be the only frontline between communities and oil and gas producers. He's betting that the next big battle to erupt will be in the province's growing coalbed methane (CBM) fields. He says the "industrialization of the landscape" that will result from the vast infrastructure needed to exploit CBM will provoke a response from those residents entangled in it.
"I think because of CBM development and the sheer intensity of the drilling that's going on because of high prices, and the fact that the stuff is running out and there are more wells needed for the same amount of oil and gas, we're going to see this kind of conflict happening in various parts of the province simultaneously."
(John Ludwick can be reached at ludwick@businessedge.ca)
