RBC estimates there are more than 93,000 oil and gas wells in Western Canada that have been inactive for six months or more as producers turn off the taps rather than sell at current low prices.
About half of the 60,000 active conventional oil wells produce less than 10 barrels per day, accounting for 11 per cent of oil production, says the RBC report.
Nichols, meanwhile, said one well on his farmland has been producing cheques for 23 years despite never actually producing commercial volumes of oil or gas for its owner, Apache Canada.
“We’re not pushing them. That one there, we farm right over it,” he said. “Right now there’s swathed barley on top of it.” According to the AER, only 24 per cent of the nearly 450,000 provincially regulated oil and gas wells in Alberta have been certified reclaimed, which means the well has been cleaned and capped, the land has been restored to original condition and the lease given back to the government.
DAN HEALING, THE CANADIAN PRESS – October 30, 2016.
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