The ongoing seepage of bitumen emulsion – a mixture of heavy tar sands oil and water – on Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s (CNRL) Cold Lake operations is now reportedly occurring on six sites, up from a previously reported four.

The two new sites were identified by the Cold Lake First Nation, according to a press statement released early Monday.

“Our people want answers and factual information on the contamination of now, six surface releases of bitumen oil,” said Cecil Janvier, Council Member and Media Spokesperson for the Cold Lake First Nation.

The Cold Lake First Nation says they want greater involvement in the ongoing release of oil on their traditional Treaty 6 territory and suggest that they have been left in the dark by CNRL.

High-pressure cyclic steam stimulation or HPCSS is used by CNRL to fracture underground rock and heat up deep reservoirs of bitumen, allowing a resulting mixture of bitumen and water to surface up a wellbore. In CNRL’s current operations several uncontrolled fissures are leaking bitumen above ground, possibly due to unintended fractures below. The company claims the mechanical failure of a wellbore is to blame, although the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) states there is no known cause for the ongoing leakage at this time.

Multiple investigations into the cause of a similar 2009 underground release were inconclusive, although the Energy Resources Conservation Board (now AER) stated “a contributing factor in the release may have been geological weaknesses in combination with stresses induced by high-pressure steam injection.”

The current series of underground leaks have forced more than 1.4 million litres of bitumen emulsion to surface on the ground and in a body of water near the company’s operations. The leaks are still uncontrolled at this time.

“I'm really distressed about the safety of our drinking water, animals, vegetation and how this is affecting the aquifers underneath our Dene lands. Our future generations will not be able to enjoy what once was pristine Denesuline territory. Animals such as wolves and bears are now migrating through our community, which is a safety risk and precaution. The environment is changing and definitely not for the positive,” stated Chief Bernice Martial in the press release.

CNRL investor relations spokesperson Zoe Addington contradicts the Cold Lake First Nation’s claims, saying “there have been no further discoveries of bitumen to surface.”

“Canadian Natural Resources Limited reported that bitumen emulsion was discovered at surface at four separate locations. The discoveries were immediately reported to the Alberta Energy Regulator and concurrently crews were dispatched to initiate necessary action. Each location has been secured and clean-up, recovery and reclamation activities are progressing well. Regular updates can be found on our website at: www.cnrl.com,” she told DeSmog Canada in an email statement.

Currently CNRL is the only body reporting on the rate and volume of the release. The AER, the province’s main oil and gas industry regulator, is reporting CNRL’s figures on its website.

“These numbers are not absolute, they’re not final,” says Bob Curran from the AER, “they may be adjusted as new information comes to light.”

“They’re not indicative of anything except the fact that they’re being updated at this point. I don’t know how much stock you can put into them other than we’re updating information with the information that we’re given as quickly as we can.”

“These aren’t numbers that we’re saying we’ve 100 per cent verified but these are number that are being reported to us. I think there’s an important caveat on that,” he said.

Curran says that it is normal for industry to report its own figures in an instance like this. “We certainly try to verify those figures but yes it’s their facility, it’s their issue that they have to deal with. Our role is to ensure they are responding appropriately.”

The AER has released several updated incident reports on the leakage as part of its larger effort to provide information on “energy-related incidents that may impact the public,” their website states.

The AER first reported on the incident on June 24th, claiming 28 cubic metres of bitumen were released. The most up-to-date figures, released September 6, 2013, claim that more than 1444 cubic metres, or more than 1.4 million litres, of bitumen emulsion have been recovered so far from the uncontrolled seepage. 

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It has been three months since the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) first reported on the subsurface spills occurring at Canada Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) operations on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, 300 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. Yesterday Environment Canada told Postmedia’s Mike De Souza that the federal department “is currently assessing the situation with respect to federal environmental laws within its jurisdiction, and has opened an investigation.”

The underground leaks, discovered on four separate well pads, have been releasing a mixture of bitumen emulsion – a mixture of oil and water – uncontrollably since at least May, although AER reports suggest the spill has been ongoing for much longer. The regulator forced CNRL to suspend its high pressure cyclic steam stimulation (HPCSS) operations in one project area “earlier this year,” according to an AER incident report released in July.

HPCSS, also known as Huff and Puff technology, forces steam underground at extremely high pressures over prolonged periods of time. The high pressure steam softens underlying bitumen, a dense heavy crude and sand mixture found beneath large regions of the boreal forest, causing the viscous oil to separate from the sand. The pressure forms cracks in the bedrock, allowing the bitumen emulsion to flow through the wellbore and up to the surface.

The high pressures used in the process may be a factor in the underground leaks.

In a recent statement CNRL stated the company “believes the cause of the bitumen emulsion seepage is mechanical failures of wellbores in the vicinity of the controlled areas. We are in the process of identifying and investigating these wellbores.”

On Friday, AER spokesperson Bob Curran told DeSmog Canada, “we haven’t determined the cause of the spill at this time.”

According to AER figures released yesterday, 1275.7 cubic metres of bitumen emulsion have been recovered on all four spill sites. That equals just over 8023 barrels of oil or more than 1.2 million litres of oil. For comparison, the most expensive onshore oil spill in US history, when Enbridge’s Line 6B ruptured near the Kalamazoo River in Marshall, Michigan, released 3 million litres.

The AER announced a “subsurface investigation” was ongoing on August 20, 2013, although it is unrelated to any investigation currently being carried out by Environment Canada.

“When we say a subsurface investigation what that means is our investigation is focused on what subsurface problems have caused this spill to arise. There’s no category of subsurface investigations – it’s a generic terms that’s applied,” he said.

Both the AER and Alberta’s Energy and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) are investigating the spill, says Curran.

“[AER] is looking at the source of the problem and the company’s actions as they pertain to the issue. ESRD is looking more at impacts,” he said. “Environment Canada hasn’t contacted us about their investigation.”

Curran said he is unable at this time to comment on the scope of Environment Canada’s investigation or whether it will overlap with current efforts of AER or ESRD.

“Certainly our investigation is complimentary to ESRD’s on the provincial side,” he said.

Issues Manager Nikki Booth says ESRD is “working cooperatively” with Environment Canada although “the investigations will be complete separate because different pieces of legislation or contraventions are being investigated.”

AER, ESRD and Environment Canada each have their own independent investigation, she said. “We work with AER on theirs and they on ours – so it’s all very cooperative.”

“We have the EPEA (Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act) and the Water Act,” said Booth, which are the relevant pieces of legislation for the ESRD investigation. 

ESRD is not releasing much information at this time because the investigation is ongoing, says Booth. “We want it to be a fair and thorough process. Once the investigation is wrapped up there will be more information we can provide.”

According to an updated incident report released yesterday, August 29, “2 beavers, 40 birds, 101 amphibians, and 33 small mammals [are] deceased” as a result of the ongoing spill.

Image Credit: Emma Pullman

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Canadian Natural Resource Limited (CNRL), the company responsible for a massive ongoing spill on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range southeast of Fort McMurray released a public notice last week claiming the release was “secured” and that “clean-up, recovery and reclamation activities are well under way.”

Cara Tobin, Office of Public Affairs spokesperson for the Alberta Energy Regulator, said that CNRL has yet to bring the release under control. 

The spill, caused by a rare underground spring of bitumen emulsion, is the result of High-Pressure Cyclic Steam Stimulation (HPCSS) technology that forces steam into underlying bitumen reservoirs at temperatures and pressures high enough to fracture underlying formations.

“I don’t want to presume what they mean by [secure] but I can tell you a few things that might help clarify,” she said.

Under usual circumstances with HPCSS heavy bitumen is softened by steam injected under the surface, allowing the resulting water and oil mixture – called bitumen emulsion – to surface up a wellbore. In this instance the high pressures underground are creating multiple bitumen springs, forcing the oil mixture to the surface in numerous locations including under a body of water.

“With any incident the company would go to the site and identify the outer boundaries of the affected area,” Tobin said.

“There’s two things – one is control and one is containment. What they have done, to the best of my knowledge, is that they have identified the outer extent of the impacted area, which is generally called delineation. I think they were finishing that process [Friday]. And so they are getting to know and rope off the outer extent of the impacted area.”

“So that’s one thing. And that’s basically containment…In this case, this is still an ongoing incident. There is no control on this incident.”

According to CNRL the area of initial impact is 20.7 hectares, or just over 51 acres. The spill volume to date, initially reported at 28 cubic metres, was updated to 950 cubic metres, or nearly 6000 barrels of oil, over the weekend.

“In this case because the incident is ongoing there will continue to be more volume of product coming up to the surface but it’s not going to be impacting any vegetation [other] than what’s already impacted…There will still be more volume of product but it’s not going to be spreading further,” she said.

She added that although this spill is “relatively unique,” an incident of its kind occurred previously on the same CNRL site.

“It’s not like it hasn’t happened before though. We have information on our website, about a similar incident that happened in 2009 and it was the same sort of thing where pressure pushed bitumen to surface and until that pressure was naturally able to recede underground the product continued to – very slowly – come to surface.”

Much like the 2009 incident, the cause of the current spill remains unknown and it is not expected to stop until underground pressure subsides.

“What we’re seeing in this one is that pressure has built up underground and is finding ways to come to surface and we don’t know what the cause of that might be. That will come out in our investigation report. But regardless, it is coming to the surface, very slowly, and it won’t stop until that pressure has gone down underground,” Tobin said.

The rate of the spill remains unreported at this time.

According to documents from the former Alberta Energy Conservation Board (ERCB), now the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), the 2009 release prompted the shut down of the site after bitumen emulsion was seen flowing out from the ground and pooling on the company’s Primrose East site.

A report on the incident says the bitumen emulsion could be observed seeping out of the ground to the south and the east of the well pad, as well as from surface fissures in the area.

The company initiated “emergency flowback to depressurize the formation” in an attempt to stem the release.

“Approximately 11,380 tonnes of solids (including snow, organic material, soil, and bitumen) was ultimately removed from the site for landfill disposal, and 904 cubic metres of bitumen was recovered from the surface of Pad 74 and transported to CNRL’s Wolf Lake Plant,” states the report.

Multiple investigations into the incident over the span of one year were inconclusive and could not ultimately determine how the bitumen emulsion made its way to the surface. The ERCB cited pre-existing unground fractures or a wellbore breach as possible explanations.

In its final summary the ERCB stated “a contributing factor in the release may have been geological weaknesses in combination with stresses induced by high-pressure steam injection.”

HPCSS creates fractures in underground formations to separate bitumen from sand. An AER incident report on the current CNRL release in Cold Lake describes HPCSS as a high-pressure steam injection method that fractures the reservoir to “create cracks and openings through which the bitumen can flow back into the steam-injector wells.”

Image Credit: Emma Pullman/CNRL

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