An audit performed by BC’s Auditor General found that the number of inactive wellsites in need of decommissioning has nearly doubled since 2007.
A report in to the audit released today claims there were 7,474 such sites in 2018, compared to 3,800 in 2007.
According to that report, it would cost nearly 3 billion dollars to decommission and restore the sites.
Oil and gas operators in BC are not required to decommission and restore well sites unless specifically ordered to by the Oil and Gas Commission.
But, when a site operator goes bankrupt, the site is designated as orphaned, and the Commission becomes responsible for the site.
The number of orphaned sites has increased from 45 in 2015 to 326 in 2018, while the fund to manage them has consistently been short tens of millions of dollars.
In 2018, legislation was passed which would require operators to resotre inactive sites, but at the time of the audit accompanying regulations were still under development.
