Alberta’s certification program for reclaimed upstream oil and gas facilities changed on October 1, 2003 to include stronger requirements for management of contamination, including any related to drilling waste.

This latest revised document was developed by representatives from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, drilling waste disposal consultants, Sustainable Resource Development, the Energy and Utilities Board, and Alberta Environment to provide guidance for assessing drilling waste disposal areas for reclamation.

The revised guidelines are on this website or at this direct link (PDF). The checklist and calculation forms on the website have also been updated. The revisions include:

• Rearranged Compliance Option 1 and 2 checklists

  
  

• New calculations for Drill Stem Test Returns (salt and hydrocarbon)

  
  

• New checklist questions to guide the assessment of sites that have been re-entered or re-drilled

  
  

• Clarification of the cuttings volume calculation (Compliance Option 1 checklist, s 1.3)

  
  

• A figure to illustrate the Phase 2 sampling requirements

  
  

• Direction to use a stratigraphic correlation chart to identify salt zones (Compliance Option 2, part 4)

Note that the preamble to the Compliance Option 1 checklist clarifies the requirement to fill in Sections 1.0 to 1.3 for all disposals.

Limits for salinity, trace elements and petroleum hydrocarbons in Compliance Options 1, 2, and 3 have not been changed.

Questions on the new guideline document can be directed to:

Gordon Dinwoodie
Environmental Policy Branch
10th Floor, 9820 - 106 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
T5K 2J6
ph. (780) 427-0600
fax. (780) 422-4192
mailto:gordon.dinwoodie@gov.ab.ca

Source: Government of Alberta.