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ARTICLE · 07 OCTOBER 2020

Wellsite Repurposing Projects: Part 2—Challenges, Uncertainties And Looking Ahead

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This is the second in a two-part series on wellsite repurposing projects in the Canadian oilpatch. Part one looked at the background and advantages of repurposing projects.

CanadaEnergy and Natural Resources
Keely Cameron
Keely Cameron
Lucas (Luke) Morrison
Lucas (Luke) Morrison
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This is the second in a two-part series on wellsite repurposing projects in the Canadian oilpatch. Part one looked at the background and advantages of repurposing projects.

Challenges and Uncertainties

Notwithstanding the potential benefits of repurposing projects and the increased amount of attention and pilot projects we are seeing in this area, we are still in the early stages of inactive site repurposing. There is still an abundance of inactive wellsites in the oilpatch and we have not seen a widespread adoption of any particular repurposing strategy. This is largely the result of the lack of a clear regulatory framework, and in some cases, a lack of sufficient flexibility in existing regulations and systems, to support such conversions.

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