Fracking set to start in Sahtu
Husky to apply for two horizontal fracturing well permits in the new year
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Friday, December 13, 2013
SAHTU
ConocoPhillips Canada Resources Corporation plans to begin horizontal hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as "fracking," this month as two wells near completion.
Husky Energy Inc. is preparing to apply to conduct conduct horizontal hydraulic fracturing exploration in the Sahtu in 2015. The company's Slater River camp is seen here on Aug. 14. - photo courtesy of Norman Yakeleya
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The National Energy Board approved ConocoPhillips Canada Resources' application to conduct exploratory fracking over the next five years on its Sahtu properties on Oct. 29.
“After running and cementing a steel cased liner, the wells will then be completed using a multi-stage hydraulic fracturing process," ConocoPhillips spokesperson Lauren Stewart told News/North. "As per our license, this must be completed by the end of March, 2014.”
The Sahtu Land and Water Board had approved ConocoPhillips' application in June. In accordance with its water license approval, the corporation submitted a list of chemicals and their risk assessments on Nov. 22.
Meanwhile, Husky Energy Inc. is preparing to apply for permits to conduct horizontal hydraulic fracturing exploration at its Slater River shale play in the Sahtu in 2015.
"Our plan for 2014 is to complete our all-season road and advance drilling plans for two horizontal wells in 2015," said chief operating officer Rob Peabody during a conference call with investors on Dec. 11.
The company is preparing to apply for horizontal drilling permits to the Sahtu Land and Water Board in the new year, Husky spokesperson Mel Duval confirmed. The company already has permits to drill two vertical wells.
Earlier this year, the company began to upgrade its infrastructure at its Canol shale play leases, 40 kilometres southeast of Norman Wells, including a 40-kilometre-by-20-metre all-weather road. Plans for a 1,400-metre-by-60-metre airstrip and a camp extension have been pushed ahead in favour of working on consultations and and the approval process for 2015, Duval added.
Peabody has described the company's exploration areas on two parcels of the Canol, Hare Indian and Bluefish Shales between Norman Wells and Tulita, as holding "significant potential" that holds long-term interest for the company.
The process of horizontal hydraulic fracturing involves high pressure pumping of sand, water, and chemicals into cracks in a formation to fracture surrounding rock, forcing gas and oil into the well bore once pressure is released.
When contacted by News/North, Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya said he was pleased to learn Husky planned to apply for horizontal drill permits in the new year.
"For the people in the Sahtu, we have good news in the sense that the economy will sustain itself by way of contracts and works and employment," he said. "We still need to get some work done on the environmental issues, such as baseline information on the impacts of the area they are going to work in. The people need to know for sure to some high degree the impacts of the hydraulic fracking issues for them to feel comfortable with hydraulic fracking."
Yakeleya said he is hopeful the new wells will open the door for higher employment in the region for the long term.
"If you close the door to this new technology, in a sense you're telling the oil companies to pack up all their equipment and leave the region," he said. "This is the new way of doing things with the oil companies and I think we need to take a good conscientious look at it."
