Urban Encroachment Creates Challenges for Balzac
For the past four decades, Nexen has operated a sour gas processing facility and gathering system at Balzac, adjacent to the city of Calgary, Alberta (population 1 million). During this time, there has been no major incident or upset affecting the public. More than 100 producing sour gas wells border the city and provide feedstock to our plant, including 10 wells located within city limits.
The key challenges facing Nexen in operating an active sour gas extraction business adjacent to a major urban centre include:
- Continued access to facilities in light of increasing urban encroachment
- Maintaining setbacks and safety buffer zones
- Ensuring continued protection of our employees, the public and the environment
- Optimizing resource extraction while maintaining public trust and confidence in our operations
Nexen actively engages the community and affected stakeholders through vehicles such as community advisory panels, urban government planning commissions, regional policy review and development, annual emergency response plan visitations and project-specific open houses. Closely regulated by the Alberta Energy & Utilities Board, the gas plant is also a Responsible Care® verified facility with direct ties to local emergency response management and regulatory health authorities.
- Nigerian Montane Forest Project
Nexen operated the Ejulebe field, offshore Nigeria, until its sale in 2005 and we are awaiting the commercial development of the Usan discovery, following formal project sanction. Although Nexen has a modest presence in the country, we are making an important contribution to the understanding of biodiversity in the Nigerian montane forest – a threatened habitat which borders Nigeria and Cameroon. Nexen’s funding helps maintain an ongoing research project employing 10 people from local villages, and several postgraduate university students from Nigeria and international universities who are studying multiple aspects of forest diversity. Nexen also provided a special one-time donation to construct a permanent project field station.
- Environmental Maps Help Reduce Impacts
Using wildlife, vegetation and disturbance data, the Canadian Oil and Gas business is generating environmental constraint maps to help anticipate and minimize our environmental impact and protect the natural biodiversity of the areas where we operate. These maps identify areas of environmental significance, including wildlife movement corridors, nesting sites, watercourses, old growth woodlands, and areas of historical, archaeological and cultural importance, helping us to select suitable locations for our wells, access roads, pipelines and other facilities. Although not a statutory requirement, the constraint maps help communicate the information needed to comply with regulatory requirements such as the Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act.
- Long Lake Project Minimizes Environmental Impacts
Nexen selected the site for the next phase of the Long Lake project because a large portion of it had already been used for industrial activity. This greatly reduces the disturbance of greenfield areas and provides economic benefits related to existing infrastructure.
The procurement process for the next phase at Long Lake requires that we source equipment from locations around the world. This creates a small risk of introducing invasive species that could harm people or the environment, or out-compete indigenous species. Nexen is working with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development to monitor equipment, and particularly waste wood piles from shipping pallets, to avoid the release of invasive species into the environment or work facilities.
- Funding for Wildlife Protection in Western Canada
As Nexen moves into previously undisturbed areas, or areas that involve a number of land users making an impact on the environment, we recognize our responsibility to help protect wildlife. In 2006, we contributed to the following initiatives:
- • $15,000 funding for the Foothills Model Forest (grizzly bear research)
- • Donation of project manager’s time for a Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada research project on grassland birds and species at risk
- • $30,000 (increased to $50,000 per year effective January 2007), plus donation of a monitoring director’s time, to Alberta Ecotrust for the Defenders of Wildlife Canada project to reduce rancher–wolf conflicts in southwestern Alberta
- Large Volume Spills in Saskatchewan and Yemen
In April 2006, we reported a 1,650 cubic metre emulsion spill near Plover Lake, Saskatchewan. We believe the oil and water emulsion had been leaking slowly over several winter months before being detected. Some of the material entered a nearby wetland. A comprehensive soil and water assessment and remediation program was initiated. Follow-up testing will continue in 2007.
In July 2006, at a Yemen drilling site, a pond had been constructed to hold water used to run the drilling mud systems. The pond’s dike showed signs of cracking, so to avoid a potential dike failure, the water was released, the dike rebuilt and the pond re-filled. The release of 4,770 cubic metres of combined fresh and produced water flowed into the desert river valley and evaporated.
- Baby Bison Key Attraction at Prairie Conservation Centre
Thanks in part to Nexen, 15 new bison calves have been born on the Saskatchewan prairie at the Old Man on His Back Prairie and Heritage Conservation area. The calves are the second generation of plains bison now living in their natural grassland habitat – the same habitat their ancestors roamed nearly a century ago, before the species almost became extinct. The introduction of bison to this area was achieved in 2003 through the support of Nexen working in concert with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
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