Drilling sour gas wells : risk management alternatives for northeast Calgary, Alberta
Creators: name: Ross, Robert Ian Laird
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: There is a growing public awareness of and opposition to the risks associated with the operation of hazardous industrial facilities near populated areas. Public concern escalates when the industrial activity possesses the potential for catastrophic consequences should a major accident occur. This study examines the risk of drilling a toxic, natural sour gas well near northeast Calgary, Alberta. The sour gas problem is indicative of the difficulties of finding socially acceptable solutions to such risky activities. The sour gas industry in Alberta has been successfully drilling for sour gas reserves for over sixty years. Although there has never been a public death in the province as a direct result of exposure to the lethal hydrogen sulphide component of sour gas, recent uncontrolled accidental releases, or 'blowouts,' at sour gas wells have caused the public in Alberta to view the risks of drilling for the toxic reserves near residential communities too big to take. Because of the complexity and enormous array of uncertainties in predicting the likelihood and severity of a sour gas well blowout, the Energy Resources Conservation Board as the regulator and manager of Alberta's oil and gas industry is confronted with widely divergent opinions of the danger of drilling sour gas wells. A risk management interpretation of the sour gas problem assumes a holistic approach, and utilizes knowledge—in depth, case specific information to help understand the uncertainties, the difficulties and implications of successfully drilling sour gas wells near urban centres. Personal work experience by this author on sour gas well drilling rigs enhances the validity and creditability of the risk management approach to sour gas. The main objective of this study, therefore, is to suggest alternatives to the manner sour gas wells are currently examined, regulated, drilled and managed in Alberta. The thesis recognizes however, that in certain sour gas applications because potential consequences of an accident are extreme, that the risk cannot be effectively managed. In such instances, the proposal may have to be denied. The risk management study begins by examining how the land use conflict between urban development and sour gas development materialized. By understanding the uncertainties of safely drilling sour gas wells, especially with regard to the vital role that human error can play in contributing to a well control problem, the inadequacy of a technical solution to risky problems is emphasized. Upon an extensive review of the literature relevant to risk research, the limitations of a quantitative, probabilistic approach to understand risky activities like drilling sour gas wells is outlined. Crucial to the risk management process is the need to recognize the legitimacy of the public's perceptions, concerns and fears of risks and to more readily include the public in discussions of the risks. Unless the public's point of view is understood, the principal difficulty of managing risky disputes, reconciling different opinions of the risks, will remain very prominent. The sour gas industry in Alberta is at a critical point of development. The current sour gas proposal possesses the potential to represent the precedent for the manner the risks of sour gas will be managed. The examination of this problem presents an opportunity to learn about the technical, moral, economic, social and psychological implications of operating hazardous industrial activities near residential communities. Unfortunately, this thesis has concluded that those involved in the sour gas problem have a great deal of catching up to do to assume a place in the classroom of understanding a holistic interpretation of the risks of sour gas.