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173 day long disaster in India ended by Piston Well Services of Red Deer

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Burning since June 9, a well blowout at Baghjan, India had foiled all who were tasked with somehow stopping the flames.  Oil India Limited (OIL) tried regional companies and then it reached out internationally.  Now one was able to fix this well blowout until they called in Piston Well Services Inc.  The Red Deer based company was able to kill the well within days.

From the LinkedIn account of Piston Well Services Inc.

Alert Disaster Control (ALERT), with their well intervention service partner, Piston Well Services, have completed the critical well killing operation in Assam, India.

Piston Well Services mobilized a 142K Snubbing/Hydraulic Workover Unit and specialists to India to assist ALERT in the final phase of the well kill operation. Oil India Limited. officially designated the well as ‘killed’ on November 15 at 1400 hrs local time.

ALERT and Piston Well Services thank everyone that contributed and persevered through the unprecedented logistical challenges to support the operations. Oil India Limited’s commitment to the successful conclusion of the operations, will continue to support the local community and ensure the ongoing protection of the sensitive adjoining wetland areas.
#canadianenergy #albertaenergy #teampiston

News Video from RepublicWorld.com

Report from Newsfile Online
By RISHU KALANTRI
Tinsukia, Nov 15: Oil India Limited (OIL) on Sunday finally achieved success in killing the blowout well at Baghjan in Assam’s Tinsukia district, almost five and a half months after the blowout occured on May 27.
The development came two hours after the “kill fluid” was pumped into the well at a depth of 3600 metres as part of the last phase of snubbing operation.

The good news comes in the evening

OIL tweeted at 5.35 pm on Sunday: “Baghjan blowout well successfully killed: The well has been killed with brine solution & under control now. Fire has been doused completely. There is no pressure in the well now & the same will be observed for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas migration & pressure build up.”

Talking to NewsFileonline, OIL spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika said the process to inject the kill fluid started around 11 am on Sunday and soon positive results were visible. “However, it will take few more hours before achieving 100 per cent success,” he said.
“Director (exploration and development ) P Chandrasekaran, director (operations) PK Goswami and resident chief executive BK Dad visited the Baghjan well site and had detailed discussions with the experts from Alert (Damage Control)  and OIL crisis management team (CMT),” said Hazarika, adding: “Further operations to abandon the well is in progress.”

The way ahead

According to an OIL source involved with the operation, the next step would be to pull out the pipes which will be followed by cementing the well. “Once it is done and tested, the snubbing unit will be uninstalled, blowout preventer (BoP) will be removed and X-mas tree will be placed before the well is abandoned.”
In August, OIL succeeded in capping the blowout well by installing BoP on the well head after two failed attempts on July 31 and August 10.
However, the kill-the-well operation failed following detection of a leakage at the casing well head and here’s when the global experts from M/s Alert Damage Control decided to move in for snubbing operation and tied up with Alberta-based Piston Well Services to move in its snubbing unit alongwith four crew members.
The 60-ton snubbing unit was flown in from Canada’s Calgary by the world’s largest cargo aircraft — Antonov An-24, to Kolkata in the third week of October and it reached the blowout well site on November 4.
On September 13, OIL succeeded in diversion of the gas after a failed attempt and used the opportunity to start partial production from a well under blowout for the first time in OIL’s history.

What is snubbing unit and the process?

A snubbing unit is a hydraulic rig that can do everything a rig can do in addition to its ability to perform under pressure in an under balanced live well state.
Snubbing operation is a type of heavy well intervention performed on oil and gas wells. It involves running the BHA on a pipe string using a hydraulic workover rig. Unlike wireline or coiled tubing, the pipe is not spooled off a drum but made up and broken up while running in and pulling out, much like conventional drill pipe.
In oil parlance, the well is killed at the bottom by inserting pipes and pumping mud through this new pipe. Killing entails injecting artificial mud into the well at very high pressure to fill up the well and stop the gas from rising to the surface.
Due to the large rigup, it is only used for the most demanding of operations when lighter intervention techniques do not offer the strength and durability. The first snubbing unit was primarily designed to work in well control situations to “snub” drill pipe and or casing into, or out of, a well bore when conventional well killing methods could not be used. Unlike conventional drilling and completions operations, snubbing can be performed with the well still under pressure (not killed). When done so, it is called hydraulic workover. It can also be performed without having to remove the Christmas tree from the wellhead.

Baghjan gas well No 5 — India’s longest well on fire 

OIL has 22 producing wells, 18 oil wells and four gas wells at Baghjan Oil Field in Tinsukia district.
The “blowout” occured at the gas well No. 5 at Baghjan oilfield, in the proximity of Maguri-Motapung Beel and Dibru Saikhowa National Park, while workover operations were under way to produce gas from new sand (oil and gas bearing reservoir) at a depth of 3,729 metres. This caused natural gas and condensate oil gush to hundreds of feet in the air and spill all around.
The well caught fire on June 9 and has been raging for 160 days before finally getting doused today.

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Automotive

Unrealistic EV mandate requires equivalent of 10 new mega hydro dams

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From the Fraser Institute

By G. Cornelis van Kooten

Electric Vehicles and the Demand for Electricity is the latest installment in the Institute’s series on EVs. It finds that Ottawa’s requirement that all new vehicles sold by 2035 be electric could increase Canada’s power demands by as much as 15.3 per cent

Ottawa’s EV mandate—and the increased demand for electricity—unrealistically requires the equivalent of 10 new mega hydro dams or 13 large natural gas plants nationwide within 11 years

The federal government’s requirement that all new vehicles sold by 2035 be electric could increase Canada’s power demands by as much as 15.3 per cent, requiring the equivalent of 10 new mega hydro dams or 13 large natural gas plants to meet the increased power needs, finds a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Requiring all new vehicle sales in Canada to be electric in just 11 years means the provinces need to substantially increase their power generation capabilities, and adding the equivalent of 10 new mega dams or 13 new gas plants in such a short timeline isn’t realistic or feasible,” said G. Cornelis van Kooten, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of Electric Vehicles and the Demand for Electricity.

The study measures how much additional electricity will be required in Canada and in three major provinces—Ontario, B.C. and Quebec—to charge electric vehicles once the federal government’s electric vehicle sales mandate comes into force.

For context, once Canada’s vehicle fleet is fully electric, it will require 10 new mega hydro dams (capable of producing 1,100 megawatts) nationwide, which is the size of British Columbia’s new Site C dam. It took approximately 10 years to plan and pass environmental regulations, and an additional decade to build. To date, Site C is expected to cost $16 billion.

Alternatively, the provinces could meet the increased electricity demand by building 13 large-scale natural gas plants nationwide capable of generating 500 megawatts of electricity each.
“Canadians need to know just how much additional electricity is going to be required in order to meet Ottawa’s electric vehicle mandate, because its impact on the provinces—and taxpayers and ratepayers—will be significant,” van Kooten said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
G. Cornelis van Kooten, a Fraser Institute senior fellow, held the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Studies and Climate at the University of Victoria for 21 years. His research interest focuses on natural resource economics and management, and issues related to the economics of climate change.

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Alberta

Alberta Chiefs demand Ottawa return funding for orphan well clean up

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News release from Dennis Burnside, VP & Indigenous Practice Lead, Political Intelligence

Alberta Chiefs and the IRC call on Federal Government to fulfill its environmental obligations and commitments by releasing funding to First Nations

Government of Canada seeking to return $135 million in previously committed funding to federal coffers to use as savings, instead of empowering First Nations to clean up inactive and orphan wells on their lands.

ENOCH CREE NATION, AB, March 11, 2024

Chief Cody Thomas, Enoch Cree Nation, Chief Roy Whitney, Tsuut’ina Nation, and Chief Ivan Sawan, Loon River First Nation, joined with Chiefs from across Alberta today to call on the Federal Government to release unspent funding committed to the Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP) – approximately $135 million –to be utilized by Indigenous people to reclaim additional inactive and orphan wells on their lands. These funds are still in Alberta, but Ottawa is demanding them back.

On December 12, 2023, Chiefs from Treaty 6, Treaty 7, and Treaty 8 territories wrote to Minister Jonathan Wilkinson appealing to the federal government to allow the government of Alberta to place unspent SRP monies into the FNSR Program, providing much needed funding to continue the successful work that has been accomplished by First Nations, for First Nations. Without these funds, governments and industry would be leaving over 2,000 sites to be abandoned or reclaimed on First Nations lands and territories.

Chief Thomas stated: “We still have many inactive wells on our lands that need to be reclaimed properly; we estimate nearly 2,000 sites which will cost over $225 million. We acknowledge the work that has been done under the SRP but there is more to be done. This is a liability of the lessees, and the Alberta Government is holding them accountable through the Well Closure Program. However, time is not on our side. We have a very limited land base and a growing population. We must do the necessary land stewardship immediately”.

Chief Ivan Sawan stated: “Many Alberta First Nations have felt the greatest impacts of natural resource developments which have swept through our lands and ancestral territories for generations, leaving behind environmental wreckage, while being deprived of the opportunity to meaningfully participate or benefit. We are calling on the federal government to do the right thing and release these funds for the environmental and economic purposes they were intended, so that First Nations can create meaningful job opportunities, clean up our lands, and create a healthier and more prosperous future for our people.”

Chief Roy Whitney stated: “Too many oil and gas companies have simply walked away from their obligation to remediate their well sites on First Nation Lands. The SRP was a way for First Nations to have abandoned sites reclaimed. Accordingly, it was with great disappointment when we learned that the Federal Government was not going to release the remaining funds for the SRP. We fully support the request for the remaining funds being held to be released to continue the work to clean up our Lands.”

Under the previous Alberta Site Rehabilitation Program (ASRP) $130 million was allocated to 32 Alberta First Nations and Metis communities to clean up 2,145 sites. First Nations were able to abandon 988 wells and 411 km of pipelines as well as complete 793 reclamations while working on 4,188 projects. The result was a reduction of over $123 million in liability on reserves in Alberta while creating jobs, business development and training, and improving Indigenous community engagement and capacity.

The Indian Resource Council, an advocacy group that negotiated the set aside funding for First Nations, has detailed data on inactive and orphan wells on Indigenous lands. Stephen Buffalo, President and CEO of the IRC stated that the Federal regulator, IOGC, dropped the ball by failing to hold companies liable for their liabilities. He stated that First Nations can no longer depend on IOGC to get this work done.

Mr. Buffalo added: “Under Alberta’s SRP program, the government allocated more than $130 million for cleanup projects for First Nations and the Metis. So, we are doing what we can to keep that program going to maintain the success of the initial FNSRP. About 350 community members received jobs and skills training. By removing the aging wells and pipelines we can free up land to use for housing and other purposes” This is why we need the surplus funds.

A sign, from Alberta’s Orphan Well Association (OWA), identifies a non-producing and abandoned oil well near Carseland, Alberta on Sunday, July 21, 2019. Orphan wells do not have parties responsible for decommissioning or reclamation activities. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Larry MacDougal

When SRP funding was earmarked to support Indigenous-led projects in 2021, it was celebrated that this was an area where the federal and provincial governments were in “perfect alignment”. This spirit of collaboration was good news for the environment, for Canada’s fight against climate change, and for First Nations. Alberta Chiefs are continuing to call on the federal government to rekindle this spirit of collaboration, however, Minister Wilkinson has recently stated that the federal government has “no plans to provide additional funding for the clean-
up of inactive and orphan wells.”

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