Repsol Hosts Open House

Representatives of Repsol Oil and Gas Canada hosted a community open house at the Arbutus Hall on April 30. The purpose of which was to inform local people about upcoming company operations in Clearwater County in 2019.

Following a complimentary beef-on-a-bun supper, JoAnne Volk and Sara Barcelo from the company's Calgary office made a presentation which included an overview of the world wide operations of the company and investment in local community enterprises.

Repsol's operations in Clearwater County have been cut back from original plans to one well drilled in January this year and three wells to be fracked over the summer. (Fracking opens up the oil/gas bearing formation for production). Each well is about 3 kilometres deep and runs horizontally within the formation for another 3 kilometres or so.

Two of these wells are located on a pad on the east side of Highway 22 in the Dovercourt area (legal 16-31-037-07W5M) and will be supplied with some 150 million litres of fracking water from a water storage pond constructed last year directly to the west of Highway 22 at "Qually's Corner" (legal 03-03-038-07W5M). This dam will be filled from the Clearwater River prior to fracking from a point of diversion on the river (legal NE 15- 038-07W5M) to the north of the storage pond.

The third well, located on the north side of Highway 11 a few kilometres to the east of its intersection with Highway 22 (legal 07-02-039-06W5M) will have its fracking water (about 75 million litres) supplied by hose from a third party water storage pond located a few kilometres further east on the south side of Highway 11 (legal 11-32-038-05W5M).

The cost to Repsol for drilling, completing and tying in a well is about $15 million.

Sara Barcelo spoke about Repsol's Good Neighbour Program

In 2018 Repsol contributed some $90,000 to various community groups within Clearwater County boundaries as a form of social investment. Taxes paid to Clearwater County amounted to $301,980 and royalties to the Province were $941,345.

The event was well attended by local people and Repsol staff members were available to answer technical and other questions about the company's operations.

A concern was expressed by some attendees about fracking induced seismic events experienced in the area and also about the use of large volumes of fresh water in fracking operations.