The times may be changing, but the southeast is still very much an oil and gas region. In fact, the latest announcement from the Government of Saskatchewan should be well received in the southeast.

The province announced this morning they are allocating $200 million for Phase Two of the Accelerated Site Closure Program (ASCP).

According to the release, this program prioritizes Saskatchewan-based oil and gas service companies and will support over 2,000 full-time jobs and reclaim up to 8,000 inactive wells over the next two years.

"Our top priority continues to be getting Saskatchewan oil and gas service workers back to work," Energy and Resources Minister Bronwyn Eyre said. "The ASCP prioritizes Saskatchewan companies and is widely regarded as pragmatic, efficient, and fair."

Phase one, which was announced in May of this year as part of a federal COVID economic recovery plan, would see $94 million allocated by the end of the year. Of that money, $33 million is marked for the Estevan area.

"The federal government's funding to clean up inactive and orphan wells means Saskatchewan oil and gas workers are getting back on the job at a time when the industry that has been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and low global commodity prices," said Canada's Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan.

Weyburn's Mayor Marcel Roy Already there are some drilling projects, and some of them are wrapping up here just before Christmas, but this gives also a look towards 2021 as to what's going to be going on," he said.

Roy said these are projects that have needed to be done for a long time.

"So it's good to see that we're being good to the environment, cleaning things up, and providing lots of good work for our oilfield people," he commented.

He said the well abandonment was an inevitable result of the oil sector boom.

"So let's do it properly. We've got money now for this. The governments have made money off of the royalties, so now they can pump money back into this, and it helps the oilfield sector," Roy added.

As phase one wraps up at the end of 2020, phase two will begin in January and run right through to March of 2022. The province said in their release that this phase would enable Saskatchewan oil and gas companies to access additional program funds to accelerate the retirement of inactive wells that have reached the end of their life cycle.

As of October 31, the ASCP has completed 428 well abandonments, 107 flowline abandonments, six facility reclamations, and 552 site remediation and reclamation activities in Saskatchewan, with more than 4,400 other projects underway.