This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.
A Sequoia well site near Ponoka, Alberta, November 3, 2018.Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail
Hello. It’s Wendy Cox here.
Hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells dot the land across Western Canada. Almost 72,000 of them haven’t produced any oil or gas for more than five years and thousands have been dormant for more than two decades. The looming potential for environmental and economic disaster is, like the wells, just below the surface.
In a massive, six-month investigation involving Globe journalists in Calgary, China and Toronto, we’ve discovered the pliancy of Alberta’s regulator combined with the speculation by upstart companies gambling with risk and little else has created a looming, billion-dollar problem. It’s one that that no one – individual companies, the industry itself or the governments involved – want to own.
National environment reporter Jeff Lewis is based in Calgary and has an extensive background in covering the oil and gas sector. Jeffrey Jones, also in Calgary, is the Globe’s mergers and aquisitions reporter and has also spent years covering the oilpatch. The story that triggered their curiosity came in March when Sequoia Resources, collapsed into receivership. Creditors, including several municipalities and the Alberta Energy Regulator, were left holding millions of dollars in the form of unfunded cleanup costs for thousands of oil and gas wells.
There were signs of Sequoia’s iffy finances. Still, the regulator kept approving deals, even breaking its own rules, and allowed energy companies with better balance sheets to dump their unwanted wells and with them, their environmental obligations.
The reporters learned that companies backed by Chinese money were snapping up oil and gas assets from stretched Calgary-based companies. There were billions of dollars' worth of deals, bearing similarities to the rush of offshore investment in Vancouver’s real-estate market.
The investigation eventually included China correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe and investigations editor Renata D’Aliesio. The group spoke to oil executives, lawyers and investment bankers. They staked out the lobby of one Chinese-backed company until someone agreed to speak to them through an interpreter. They went door-knocking at the residential address of the headquarters of several of the companies. No one was home, but pro-wrestling legend Brett (The Hitman) Heart answered the door next door. He said he didn’t know his neighbour.
The reporting prompted this weekend’s extra supplement in the print edition of the Globe.
The story reveals few angels among those involved in the deals. Well-known companies such as Husky Energy Inc., Enerplus Corp., and others have been able to work around regulators to load the cleanup costs on to smaller companies that are expanding by buying the distressed wells of the bigger players, sometimes even without secure bank financing.
The business plan is based on a hope that natural-gas prices will rebound and generate profits big enough to fund the cleanup of the old wells as they end their life.
But it doesn’t always work out that way.
“In Alberta, a string of corporate bankruptcies has already pushed the number of defunct well sites to 4,349, up from 545 in 2014, necessitating a $235-million loan from the provincial government last year to shore up the fund set aside by industry to pay for cleanup.”
Meanwhile, the number of inactive, abandoned and orphaned wells in Western Canada that require cleanup and reclamation has ballooned to more than 210,000.
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here. This is a new project and we’ll be experimenting as we go, so let us know what you think.
B.C. LEGISLATURE:
It’s been a long time since the British Columbia legislature stoked the flames of its long-held reputation as the most tumultuous legislative precinct in the country. Residents could be forgiven for thinking that honor had shifted to Ontario. But this week in B.C. brought back daily and increasingly bizarre intrigue.
It started Monday night, when the House leaders of the legislature’s three political parties were summoned to Speaker Darryl Plecas' office and were given an outline of events they regarded as concerning enough that they agreed to pass a motion suspending with pay the legislature’s two top officers.
The next day, after the legislature’s clerk Craig James and Sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz presided over the morning question period, the two were called to Mr. Plecas' office where they were told they were being suspended. At the same time in the legislature, MLAs – who were told only that they should approve the motion before the House – voted unanimously to suspend the men.
The men were escorted by Victoria police from the buildings. A bewildered Mr. James, who has worked there since 1984, said he had no idea what the allegations were or why he was being suspended under police escort.
On Wednesday, Mr. Plecas' special adviser, Alan Mullen, held several chaotic briefings in which he revealed that he had been hired in January by his friend, Mr. Plecas, to help in an investigation into the pair. The two took their concerns to police in August and on Oct. 1, two special prosecutors were appointed.
On Thursday, Liberal House Leader Mary Polak delivered a sworn statement to reporters (that alone was odd) saying that during the Monday night meeting, Mr. Plecas had proposed installing Mr. Mullen as the acting sgt-at-arms. The idea was flatly rejected, events that were confirmed by the House leaders of the other parties. Ms.. Polak also tersely said she was unaware the complaint to police was initiated by Mr. Plecas' office. Increasingly under fire, Mr. Plecas first said he would hold a news conference to release details of “extra resources” his office was being afforded. He cancelled the news conference, but Mr. Mullen read a statement announcing former judge and Liberal attorney general Wally Oppal had been hired to advise the speaker and would be doing the public talking from now on .
On Friday, a lawyer for the two suspended men issued a letter to the three House leaders demanding Mr. James and Mr. Lenz be reinstated to their jobs. The letter said the removal “was not done at the behest of the Special Prosecutors or the RCMP.” The Liberals indicated they were having second thoughts. Leader Andrew Wilkinson said his members had assumed there had been some legal diligence before making the recommendation.
This weekend, Globe reporters Ian Bailey and Andrea Woo provide some insight on the four main players.
Opinion:
Gary Mason on the legislature’s shenanigans: “We need to be careful when it comes to casting premature judgment on the two men who were marched out of the legislature this week under a cloud of suspicion. An RCMP investigation doesn’t mean a person is guilty of anything, as history has shown.”
Gary Mason on Alberta’s lack of plan B: “Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion or not, demand for oil is going to decrease, and dramatically, in the not too distant future. And no one in Alberta, certainly among its political leadership, wants to even broach the subject.”
Globe Editorial Board on Alberta’s oil-by-rail proposal: “Canada’s pipeline follies continue to be such a disheartening spectacle. Putting taxpayers on the hook for the latest round of desperate measures is not ideal, though we can’t blame the Alberta government for seeking immediate solutions. Voters there want something – anything – done about a set of circumstances that is shortchanging oil companies, workers and the economy.”
Derek Burney on pipelines vs. the environment: “The principal challenges for any Canadian government are national unity, prosperity and security. Given the gross dysfunction throttling Alberta energy, the first two are now in jeopardy. Calls for Western separation from frustrated Albertans are gathering steam.”
James Keller