Seminar – 16 October‚ Performance of Drilling Waste Sumps, Western Arctic Canada.

Date: Wednesday 16th October 2024
Time: 1pm Eastern Time / 11am Mountain Time

Rae Landriau will be presenting Performance of Drilling Waste Sumps, Western Arctic Canada.

Petroleum resource exploration and development has occurred in the Northwest Territories since the 1920s. Freezing-point depressants, mainly potassium chloride, were added to drilling fluids to facilitate drilling into permafrost. Disposal of these fluids was typically in large man-made pits (sumps). Sumps were excavated in permafrost, with the intention that frozen ground would contain the fluids indefinitely. Climatic warming in northwest Canada has raised the temperature of near-surface permafrost, increasing the potential for failure of sumps in the region. Using electro-magnetic surveys, ground conductivity on and off sumps can be collected and analyzed to detect the presence of these fluids and determine if they have migrated.

Zoom details for all our seminars will be posted in our Teams site.