A Historical Footnote

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the recent W5 piece that ran on the weekend; especially how much more comfortable the Cartwrights looked on horseback than I ever will! 

Those of you who’ve seen it would likely agree that aside from bookend references to our proposed East Slopes development, the bulk of the content focussed on specific cases that Petro-Canada had no involvement in; a story presented under the guise of a regulatory authority tasked with monitoring and addressing development concerns.

Neither topic is one that anybody outside of these circumstances could responsibly comment on.

That said, there was one event highlighted whose importance I want to underscore because it changed the way the industry operates ...

The worst sour gas incident in Canada occurred in 1982 in a relatively unpopulated area of west-central Alberta near the hamlet of Lodgepole (highlighted here by the National Film Board). As noted in the W5 video, the high-pressure gas well blew out of control for 68 days.

What wasn’t mentioned was that the Lodgepole incident led to a comprehensive review of sour gas drilling regulations and contributed to the development of national standards for emergency response. Lodgepole was a significant turning point in both the regulation and management of sour gas wells. From what I’ve read and seen, it was a horrible incident, yet one that sparked a fervent need for change.

The Lodgepole incident spawned a generation of safety regulations that require the industry to designate hazardous drilling targets as "critical wells" and to use elaborate safety precautions at the drill site. The new regulations imposed more stringent drilling procedures at critical wells, required specialized safety features on drilling and other equipment, and forced companies to develop detailed emergency response plans before beginning to drill.

A lot has changed since 1982 – for example, TIME magazine's Man of the Year in ’82 was for the first time given to a non-human; the personal computer. To put things into perspective… blogs and the Web (common features in today’s lexicon of communication) didn’t even exist!

In the wake of the Lodgepole incident, two decades of innovation, technology and best practice have rightfully molded the circumstances under which today’s companies operate. Today is not yesterday, and at least in this sense, we’re the better for it.