Drill logs show Shell struck water

By Quinn Bender
Smithers Interior News
July 23, 2008

Royal Dutch Shell's claim that no water is being produced by coalbed methane test wells is being refuted by the company's own drill logs.

The oil giant has repeatedly claimed that three test wells drilled in 2004 exploring for coalbed methane did not produce any water, but drill logs obtained by The Interior News show that, in fact, the testing at one well site has on four instances caused artesian flow at depths from 179 to 311 metres.

Opponents to proposed coalbed methane exploration and extraction in the Klappan Valley, known colloquially as the Sacred Headwaters, said the drill logs conclusively prove Royal Dutch Shell is not forthcoming with their findings

"[The drill log] defeats Shell's mantra that they haven't found any water up there," said Shannon McPhail, executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC).

As a result of the artesian activity, Shell suspended drilling at the site and has since capped the well and reclaimed the surrounding area, according to a company spokesperson. Shell also stressed the water was not produced from a coal seam, but found at random depths in fresh ground-water tables.

"What's in this document is actually not produced water [from the coal seam], it's water that you would experience as you drill through different layers of rock," said Shell spokesperson Larry Lalonde. "What we're drilling for, where we would get the gas from the coal, is much deeper than the water that was experienced."

Whether or not the water was the dreaded flow from the coal seam, toxic to above- ground ecosystems, the SWCC is concerned the potential for such water threatens to mix with groundwater, and enter the environment through natural aquifers.

Lalonde insists produced water from the coal seam could not penetrate their well structure, four layers each of steel and concrete, to mix with subterranean fresh water.

Shell faced a battery of protests last week, during a series of public information sessions attended by a Royal Dutch Shell representative from the company's head office in the Netherlands.

The SWCC hand delivered a large box containing 1,730 letters from North Americans opposing Shell's project in the so-called Sacred Headwaters, the ecologically sensitive watershed where three of the province's major salmon-bearing rivers begin. The package was handed to Barnaby Briggs, from Shell International's Social Performance Management Unit, to hand deliver to Royal Dutch Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer.

The handoff occurred amidst one of several protests outside Elks Hall, with representatives from several community and First Nations groups shouting anti-Shell slogans.

Despite the protests, Shell said the open house was well attended with approximately 80 people dropping in over the two-day period.

The protests fell on the heels of an official letter of opposition released by Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs.

"The Wet'suwet'en are in full support of the Tahl'tan in their fight against [Royal Dutch Shell] and have passed an agreement in principle to support the Friends of Wild Salmon Declaration."

That declaration was signed by the councils and board of directors of several Northwest towns and their districts, including the Town of Smithers. The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako is awaiting a presentation from Shell Canada before voting on their endorsement of the declaration.

Having routinely promised the most environmentally sensitive operation possible, Shell is asking the public to await data from this season's test drilling before they pass judgement on the project. The company said it plans to drill six wells to determine whether the gas will flow, if those wells will produce the potentially toxic waste water and what scale of an operation will be needed if the project is green lit.

During an information session delivered to the Chamber of Commerce Thursday, the company hinted that the government permitting process would eventually require them to file an application for at least 1,000 wells total in the Klappan, Prudential and Nass Valleys.

"You want a company like Shell doing this," said spokesperson Kathy Penney. "Not five or six separate companies who will all do it their own way."

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