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Eight years after discovering an abandoned oil well beneath her land near Swift Current, Johanne Lee is still trying to get an answer to what she considers a simple question.
“All I want to know is: is it leaking or not, and what’s the plan from this point forward?” Lee said.
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Lee has again put up a methane warning sign along the service road near the property, drawing public attention to a dispute that began when she and her husband tried to subdivide part of their land in 2018.
The Ministry of Energy and Resources says the site is safe and remains under monitoring. TAQA North, the company responsible for the well, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Well discovered during subdivision application
Lee and her husband bought the nearly 35 hectare (86 acre) property in 2007. One side borders the City of Swift Current, while the other sits within the RM of Swift Current.
Years later, the couple decided to subdivide and sell about 16 hectares (40 acres) they were no longer using. The parcel sits near a paved service road, a grain elevator and the Trans-Canada Highway.
Lee said nothing on the property, its land title or the documents reviewed when they bought the property indicated that an abandoned well was buried below the surface.
She learned about it only after submitting the subdivision application.
“I got a phone call from community planning, and they said we could not do anything around the abandoned well,” Lee said. “We knew nothing of the abandoned well, so I was more than surprised.”
The well was drilled in 1985 and later acquired by TAQA North. Lee said she was told development was restricted within 125 metres of the well and that access would have to be preserved in case heavy equipment was needed to repair it.
Because the well sits near the middle of the land the couple hoped to sell, Lee said the restrictions have made development difficult.
“Our land is worthless with a well on it that’s leaking,” she said. “Nobody’s going to want to buy it, and if they did, we sure wouldn’t get a very good price for it.”
Methane detected in 2018
Provincial records show the Ministry of Energy and Resources tested the well on Sept. 19, 2018.
The test recorded a single methane reading of approximately 800 ppm (parts per million) near the wellhead. The ministry classified the overall gas-migration test as negative and determined the reading did not require additional action.
Lee said she was told the site was safe but was not informed about the methane detection at the time. The ministry later told her the test was stored electronically in its Integrated Resource Information System (IRIS), and was not included when she initially requested the physical well file.
The ministry said a negative test does not require every reading to be zero. Officials also consider vegetation, site conditions, instrument sensitivity and assessments made by experienced field staff.
In a July 2025 letter to Lee, the ministry said its primary relationship is with the companies it regulates.
“The Ministry is not required to provide the results of tests and/or monitoring following an abandonment to interested landowners,” the letter said.
The ministry said information is generally provided to the company responsible for the well. If testing identifies a problem, the company may then be required to address it with the affected landowner.
In another response, the ministry said there is no legislation, regulation or directive requiring it to notify landowners in those circumstances.
Lee disagrees with that approach.
“If there’s something going on on the land that’s dangerous, then I should be the first one the government notifies,” she said. “I own that land.”
Survey stakes mark the location of an abandoned oil well on Johanne Lee’s land near Swift Current. Lee says the well was not marked when her family discovered it during a subdivision application in 2018. (Johanne Lee/Submitted)
Positive test leads to repair order
The ministry said another test conducted by TAQA North in 2022 was negative.
Lee said her concerns grew in 2023 when she noticed an area around the buried well where little or nothing was growing.
A later gas migration survey produced a positive result. Lee said she was told methane was detected at 13,000 ppm and was coming from the Belly River Formation.
The ministry confirmed that its September 2023 site visit led it to request another survey. It described that survey as the first positive gas migration result recorded at the site.
A minister’s order issued Jan. 3, 2025, required TAQA North to access the property, evaluate the well and complete necessary repairs.
The ministry initially rejected an extension request from TAQA, saying the company had not provided sufficient justification. A later request was approved, giving the company another month because of wet ground and the potential for additional surface damage.
Lee said the repair work eventually began during the summer of 2025. A drilling rig operated at the site for several days, but she said testing shortly after it left detected a much higher methane concentration.
“It was tested at 55,000 parts per million at this point,” Lee said.
That figure was provided by Lee and has not been independently confirmed by the ministry or TAQA North.
Lee said the company returned after discovering a problem with cement placed in the well. More work was completed, but testing and monitoring continued.
Ministry says site is safe
In a January 2026 email, Jane McLeod, executive director of field services with the Ministry of Energy and Resources, said increased gas levels had been confirmed through a third-party survey.
McLeod said the ministry required the company to repair or re-abandon the well and that its Swift Current field office monitored the work through site visits and updates from TAQA.
The ministry later detected 1,000 ppm of methane directly at the vent, equal to two per cent of the lower explosive limit. It said a bubble test showed no vent flow and described the site as being in a safe state.
The ministry said the well cannot be cut, capped and prepared for reclamation until third-party testing finds no surface-casing vent flow or gas migration.
McLeod told Lee further testing would be required.
“The well will not be able to be cut and capped and prepared for reclamation until third-party testing for surface casing vent flow and gas migration testing are completed and show no issue,” McLeod wrote.
Lee said more monitoring equipment was installed at the site in June, but she has not received a clear explanation of what the latest testing found.
“It’s just a simple question: Is there methane coming up out of that well, or is there not?” she said. “I don’t care about the technical part of it.”
The ministry said it would not necessarily notify Lee before inspections, but would provide testing information after inspections were completed.
In a general statement, the ministry said companies operating oil and gas sites are normally responsible for inactive and abandoned wells. Regulators provide oversight, while ministry field offices conduct inspections.
The ministry said members of the public should first report concerns to the operator. If that does not resolve the issue, the ministry should be contacted.
Researcher calls leaking plugged well unusual
Zachary Mailhot, a master’s student in civil engineering at McGill University, was part of a research group that examined the well.
The group measures methane emissions from non-producing wells across Canada in an effort to identify the relatively small number responsible for most emissions.
Mailhot said most plugged wells his team has tested released either no methane or an insignificant amount.
Lee’s well stood out.
“It was the first time I saw a well that was plugged and that was leaking this way,” Mailhot said. “That was definitely something not normal.”
Mailhot said methane is a greenhouse gas and may become explosive when enough accumulates in an enclosed space. He stressed that serious incidents are rare and said he could not comment on whether Saskatchewan’s regulations are stronger or weaker than those in other provinces.
Thousands of inactive wells
As of March 31, Saskatchewan had 34,642 inactive oil and gas wells, according to the Ministry of Energy and Resources.
The Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Orphan Fund abandoned 406 wells during the 2025-26 fiscal year. Another 2,293 wells requiring abandonment remained in the ministry’s orphan-well inventory.
The ministry defines an abandoned well as one that has been properly decommissioned and closed in a way that poses no risk to the public or the environment.
Lee believes Saskatchewan landowners need an easier way to learn whether an abandoned well is beneath their property and to obtain its inspection history.
“How can the landowner complain if there’s a problem if they don’t know a well is there?” she said.
After eight years of correspondence, testing and repair work, Lee said she is exhausted but unwilling to walk away.
“I’m not going to give up until that well is abandoned and there’s no methane coming out of it,” she said. “I want to sell that land to someone without giving them the nightmare that I’ve had.”
For now, the land remains tied up, the monitoring continues and Lee’s warning sign is once again visible beside the road.
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