Shutdown underway of natural gas wells near Cavendish

Halifax-based Corridor Resources Inc. is decommissioning two exploration wells near Cavendish, P.E.I.

Workers on-site are installing steel plugs and filling the wells withconcrete.After that, the company will do an environmental assessment on the site and perform any remediation work that might be required.

Each of the wells, located on a rural property in thecommunityof Mayfield, is about 2.5 kilometres deep.

This decommissioning marks the end of Corridor operations on P.E.I.

The wells had been in place for years, but never did produce commercial quantities of natural gas.

The work now underway includes intermittentflaring of methane gas still in the wells.Some local residents have noticed the flames.The company says local fire departments and government have been notified of theflaring activity.

About a dozen workers are on the site, including personnel from Alberta, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as local private contractors.

Work is slated to take sevento 10 days.Crews on-site say poor weather has slowed their progress.

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