As St. Patrick's Day approaches, we wanted to take a moment to wish you all a happy and festive holiday! Whether you're Irish or not, this holiday is a great excuse to celebrate with friends and family, and we hope you have a wonderful time.
At Benoit, we're grateful for the opportunity to serve you and help you achieve your goals. We appreciate your business and the trust you've placed in us, and we look forward to continuing to work with you in the future.
So here's to a day filled with green, laughter, and good times!
Thank you for your continued support, and happy St. Patrick's Day!
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AB: Closure Targets Reporting Reminder |
The AER has issued an email reminder to operators that the deadline for meeting their Inventory Reduction closure quotas for the previous year are due March 31, 2023. This deadline includes reporting their closure spend activities for 2022 in the Onestop or paying the mandatory spend limit deposit in lieu.
Licensees can view their 2023 closure quota within OneStop under Close > Closure Targets > Mandatory Targets or in the Closure Activity and Spend report within OneStop. (As of February 2023, Closure Targets have been renamed Closure Quotas in Directive 088.)
Licensees that do not report closure spends by March 31, 2023 or do not meet their closure quotas are noncompliant with Directive 088: Licensee Life-Cycle Management which will result in a compliance or enforcement response from the AER.
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AB: New Edition of Directive 071 and New Manual |
The following has been updated:
· Content relating to emergency preparedness and response guidance has been removed from the directive and placed in Manual 026.
Manual 026 includes information the previously were included in Bulletin 2010-48.
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AB: New Functionality Moving to OneStop |
On March 16, 2023, the AER will release the following functionality to the OneStop platform:
Form Submissions
A “Forms” tab will be added to OneStop and will be accessible on the landing page as an entry point for general submissions. At that time two forms will be available:
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Financial Statement Submission (Directive 067, Schedule 3)
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Closure Nomination Licensee Response (Directive 088)
Well Licensing: Brine-Hosted Minerals
The well licensing module will be enhanced to accept brine-hosted mineral well licence applications (new and amendment). Improvements include brine-hosted mineral well types and Regulatory Conversion, a well licence amendment type.
Wells Licensing: Carbon Capture Storage
A new Carbon Capture Storage well type will be added to the wells licensing module in OneStop, which includes the option to classify a carbon sequestration evaluation well as “Confidential."
Training and Support Materials
The Well Licensing Brine-Hosted Minerals training session is planned after the release to review the changes and demonstrate the new functionality in OneStop. To register go to the AER Announcements page.
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AB: Drilling and Completion Cost Submissions for 2022 |
Under the Modernized Royalty Framework (MRF), companies are required to submit actual costs to Petrinex for the well activities of drilling, completion, re-completion and re-entry. Wells with an active status in 2022 or earlier are required to have actual costs submitted by April 30, 2023.
Any licences that do not have their actual cost submissions completed by April 30, 2023 will be subject to penalties.
Additional information can be found here: IB 2023-01
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AB: Modernized Royalty Framework Guideline Updates |
On February 27, 2023, the Alberta Energy announced updates to the Modernized Royalty Framework (MRF). Version 2.2 supersedes version 2.1 and is now published on the Alberta Energy website (www.alberta.ca/oil-guidelines.aspx).
Additional information can be found here: IB 2023-02
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MB: Well Setback Distances |
On February 13, 2023, Manitoba Mining, Oil and Gas Branch published well setback distances for abandoned and non-abandoned wells.
Abandoned Well:
- A 50 meter setback due to reduced potential risks which can be attributed to the permanent mechanical or physical isolation of oil and gas zones; or
- The minimum setback or space that can be achieved by providing only the essential number of crew and equipment by either rotation, reposition or any other method or combination that could provide sufficient space around the well.
Non-Abandoned Well:
- A 75 meters setback as per Schedule C
Additional information can be found here: IN 23-02
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SK: Facility Licence Expiration |
On February 8, 2023, an enhancement in IRIS has been made to the Facility Licence Expiration process. Upon implementation, if a Facility Licence’s Report Construction Complete obligation is not fulfilled within the specified 2-year period, IRIS automatically cancels the licence.
In addition, a new permission set has been created so that licensees can subscribe to Facility Licences Expiry Warning Notifications and Facility Licence Cancelled Notification.
Additional information can be found HERE
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SK: Update on Directive PNG008 |
Directive PNG008: Disposal and Injection Well Requirements sets out the requirements for the licensing and operation of disposal and injection wells.
As per Directive PNG008 disposal and injection wells approved prior to the effective date of Directive PNG008 (March 29, 2018) must meet the directive’s completion, operation, monitoring and logging requirements within five years of that effective date.
The ER is indefinitely suspending the March 29, 2023 deadline for disposal and injection wells approved prior to March 29, 2018 to be in compliance with Directive PNG008 and its requirements.
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BC: BC Energy Regulator – new name |
The BC regulator name changed from the BC Oil and Gas Commission to the British Columbia Energy Regulator to better align with its expanded role of regulating the life cycle of oil, gas and hydrogen industries within BC.
Additional information can be found here: IU 2023-04
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BC: Methane Emission Regulation Feedback |
The British Columbia Energy Regulator (BCER) is seeking input from interested parties for the development of regulations to reduce methane emissions associated with the upstream oil and gas sector.
The goal of this regulatory review is to identify changes required to:
- Achieve the provincial target of a 75 per cent reduction in methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 2030.
- Make progress towards near elimination of methane emission by 2035.
- Achieve equivalent reductions to the proposed federal regulations, as applied to the oil and gas sector in B.C.
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Additional information can be found here: IU 2023-03
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Are you planning to drill a new well? |
Benoit Regulatory is currently offering technical submission guidance for Directive 056, which is applicable for the construction or operation of facilities and wells.
In addition, we can prepare an H2S release rate report, determine surface casing depth, and submit post-drilling and well completion data, as well as tours and directional surveys.
Please let us know if you require any help in ensuring compliancy within our industry.
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Did you know that Benoit provides a service which covers our regulatory application, liability management ratio and evaluation services under one umbrella?
Under this program, Benoit acts as a “regulatory arm” for your company by receiving and responding to all compliance related matters on your company’s behalf.
As your regulatory designate, in addition to our regulatory application service, Benoit conducts a number of additional services including, but not limited to:
· Inactive Well Compliance Program Monitoring
· Liability Management Rating Forecasting
· DDS Entry for Well/Completion Details
· Flaring Notifications
· Well Test Data Submissions
· Gas Conservation Economic Analyses
· Monthly VRR calculations/updates for Enhanced Recovery Schemes
If you're interested in this service or would like to discuss this further, please contact us for more information.
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Follow us on LinkedIn!
We post regulatory updates to our LinkedIn company page on a weekly basis. Follow us to ensure you have access to the most up-to-date information. To view and follow our company page, please click here.
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