As this is our first newsletter of 2026, all of us at Benoit Regulatory want to take this opportunity to thank our clients and partners for your continued trust and collaboration.

We’re proud of what we accomplished together this past year and look forward to supporting your projects and regulatory goals in the year ahead.

Wishing you a successful, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

A reminder that the AER released AERH2S, an updated model for calculating emergency planning zones (EPZs) around sour wells and pipelines. It’s available now and became mandatory for Directive 056 applications after January 1, 2026

Bulletin 2025-34 | Alberta Energy Regulator

The AER released a Site-Specific Risk Assessment (SSRA) Submission Checklist to help applicants prepare and submit SSRAs under the Alberta Tier 2 Soil and Groundwater Remediation Guidelines. Including the checklist with a record of site condition submission via OneStop is voluntary but recommended to improve consistency and review efficiency.

Bulletin 2025-33 | Alberta Energy Regulator

IL 2026-06 updates third-party review rules for non-productive petroleum and natural gas rights. New provisions allow shallow rights reversion non-productivity reviews, raise the number of agreements that can be requested monthly to 10 per company, remove the area limit, and set eligibility criteria for requests.

THIRD-PARTY_REQUESTS_TO_REVIEW_NON-PRODUCTIVE__PETROLEUM_and_NATURAL_GAS_RIGHTS