Canada: Alberta has 84,100 Inactive Oil & Gas Wells That Can be Transformed into Geothermal Wells

Putting Alberta’s idle wells to work could heat up the energy patch (Calgary Herald)

Tens of thousands of non-productive oil and gas wells scar Alberta’s landscape and their numbers are growing as the province’s brutal recession drags on.

The most recent count from the Alberta Energy Regulator shows there were 84,100 inactive wells in the province in September, which is up from 77,600 in March. Meanwhile, the number of orphaned wells in the province — wells for which there is no financially responsible company — has almost doubled during the same time period, rising to 1,285 from 698.

In November, work crews are scheduled to arrive at the Leduc No. 1 Energy Discovery Centre, a museum south of Edmonton that celebrates Alberta’s first oil boom, and begin capping, scrubbing and cleaning an old well bore so that it can be transformed into a geothermal well.

Read More.......