Swan River First Nation — Well Closure & Reclamation

An estimated 1,880 legacy oil-and-gas wells affected Swan River First Nation lands; ~150 needed to be prioritised for closure and reclamation. The community needed a planning and prioritisation framework that respected both technical reality and community priorities, as well as environmental aspects.

Discuss a similar engagement

Swan River First Nation watershed analysis — all 1,880 legacy wells plotted as red stars across Sloan, Henry, Inverness, Moosehorn and Murray Creek sub-basins inside the SRFN priority area

Approach

Borealis supported the community with a planning and scenario engine that visualised the well inventory, prioritisation criteria, and reclamation logistics — building agency for the community in negotiations with operators and regulators.

Result

A community-owned planning tool and process that re-grounded reclamation conversations in shared data — and visibly improved the community's negotiating position with industry and regulator counterparts.

Key facts

1,880 legacy wells inventoried
Reclamation priority logic built with community
Community-owned planning tool
Re-grounded operator/regulator conversations

From the analysis

Environmental and infrastructure context

The prioritisation framework brought together watershed, pipeline, and waterway data alongside the well inventory — so reclamation sequencing reflected environmental risk to rivers, fish-bearing creeks, and cultural areas, not just regulatory categories.

SRFN Priority Area overlaid on regional hydrology and pipeline network between Faust, Swan Hills and Akinet Lake — SRFN priority area in regional context — hydrology and operator infrastructure.

QGIS Wells-at-Risk layer view of the SRFN priority area — 1,880 wells classified by decade, proximity to buildings and waterways, sour-gas status, and overlap with cultural/historic areas — Wells-at-Risk classification — decade of drilling, proximity to buildings and water, sour-gas and cultural-area overlaps.

Dense pipeline and pump-station network across the SRFN territory, including crude oil, liquid ethane, fresh water and HVP product lines crossing Swan River and Edith Creek — Pipeline and pump-station network — crude, ethane, HVP and fresh-water lines across SRFN drainages.

Husky Oil Operations well 0R46/0025587 located inside the Swan River channel buffer — flagged as a Well-in-Waterway high-risk asset — Wells-in-Waterway flag — a legacy well sited inside the Swan River channel buffer.

Swan River First Nation — Well Closure & Reclamation

Environmental and infrastructure context

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