Prairie National Wildlife Area Units 25 and 26 Natural Gas Well Abandonment

Canadian Natural Resources Limited is proposing to decommission five well sites and associated pipelines within the Prairie National Wildlife Area, Units 25 and 26.  The Prairie National Wildlife Area (NWA) lands include a License to Occupy Crown Land by Canadian Natural Resources Limited.  Canadian Natural Resources Limited holds two natural gas well sites on Prairie National Wildlife Area Unit 25 and three natural gas well on Prairie National Wildlife Area Unit 26.  There are associated pipelines with both projects.  

The Prairie National Wildlife Area is administered under the Wildlife Area Regulations of the Canada Wildlife Act.  Prairie National Wildlife Area Units 25 and 26 comprise of 192.50 hectares (475.67 acres) or 65.39 hectares (161.59 acres) and 127.10 hectares (314.08 acres) respectively.   Canadian Natural Resources Limited License to Occupy Crown Land total area for Units 25 and 26 of the Prairie National Wildlife Area is 5.85 hectares (14.42 acres), or 2.38 hectares (5.86 acres) and 3.47 hectares (8.56 acres) respectively.   The License to Occupy Crown Land covers well sites and access roads.  These well site locations were part of historical surplus land transfer in the 1960s from Agriculture Canada to Environment Canada.

The majority of the infrastructure comprising of these wells have exceeded their life span and resource extraction use. As a result, the wells, pipelines and access roads will be decommissioned, abandoned, and reclaimed to a status resembling the current condition of the surrounding habitat.  The scope of this project includes pulling of internal tubing, placing a cement plug down the well, hydrojetting down the well head, cutting and capping the well(s).  Pipelines will be hydrojetted, then pigging and purging of lines occurs and finally risers are cut.  After each site has concluded the decommissioning of wells and pipelines, a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment will be conducted to investigate any Areas of Potential Environmental Concerns, and remediation of the site.  When no further remediation is required areas will be prepared for seeding with appropriate, approved seed mixes.  Multiple years of monitoring of successful reclamation will take place.  An acknowledgement of reclamation will be approved once the departmental representative determines that the site meets reclamation criteria. Upon receipt of that approved acknowledgment of reclamation, Canadian Natural Resources Limited will surrender the lease, withdraw and discharge the caveat from the title.  The expected outcome is restoration of a disturbed site, a small increase in acres of wildlife habitat, and less traffic and site disturbance in the future as resource extraction activities cease.

Disclaimer

This map is for illustrative purposes. The markers represent the approximate locations based on available data. More than one marker may be identified for a given assessment.

 
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Latest update

The assessment is in progress.

Key documents

Key documents
Document Number Document Title File Date
3 Notice of Determination PDF (191 KB) October 12, 2021

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Contacts

Environment and Climate Change Canada
Joseph Kotlar, Protected Areas Specialist
115 Perimeter Road
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 0X4
Telephone: 306-241-2459
Email: joseph.kotlar@ec.gc.ca


  • Location

    • Prairie National Wildlife Area Unit 25 (Saskatchewan)
    • Prairie National Wildlife Area Unit 26 (Saskatchewan)

  • Nature of Activity

    • Oil and Gas
    • Remediation and conservation

  • Assessment Status

    In progress

  • Start Date

    2021-09-08

  • Proponent

    Canadian Natural Resources Limited

  • Authorities

    • Environment and Climate Change Canada

  • Assessment Type

    Project on federal lands

  • Reference Number

    82962

Nearby assessments

..within 200 kilometres
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