BC wells

British Columbia (BC) on Monday launched a C$50 million ($38 million) first stage of its share in Canada’s government-financed Covid-19 pandemic relief program to clean up depleted and abandoned oil and gas wells.

Contracts to seal and reclaim 1,880 dormant wells were awarded to 79 service firms that expect to employ about 1,200 workers on the assignments in northern production fields, said BC and federal resources, energy and environment ministers.

The Canadian government in April had launched a C$2.47 billion ($1.8 billion) wells and emissions cleanup program to salvage jobs during the industry slump caused by the Covid-19 virus pandemic and fallen energy prices.

Similar but larger federally financed discarded well cleanups are underway in Alberta and Saskatchewan,...