Alberta Premier Smith says plan for orphan well cleanup coming next month

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at a press conference in Calgary, Alta., Feb. 19, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says plans for cleaning up abandoned or inactive oil wells are to be made public in two weeks.

She says public funding won’t be needed for the new initiatives, despite a draft government report leaked to media that explicitly says the opposite.

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The report recommends creating new companies backstopped by taxpayers that would acquire abandoned wells and use revenues from them to fund the cleanup.

It also recommends setting up an insurance fund financed by industry that is ultimately backstopped by the province.

Smith says no decisions have been made yet but that having companies acquire and produce oil from abandoned wells to create new revenue sources for cleanup is an idea worth considering.

But she says that plan isn’t without risk as there are no guarantees that abandoned wells will be profitable.

“I think we have to be prepared for that,” she said.

“I’ll be interested to see how the public feels about it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2025.

The Canadian Press