September 2023 Regulatory Newsletter

September 2023

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Benoit + Service

Watch our quick Benoit+ intro video here: Benoit ⁺ quick intro

The reasons why many E&P companies use our program include:

- conveniently access all your compliance details in one place with the Benoit+ portal,

- stay compliant with no red flags from the AER, avoiding penalties, and never missing

a deadline,

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and

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care of the regulatory side of the business for an affordable monthly monitoring fee

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If you would like to request a quote tailored to your company's needs, please contact mronald@benoitregulatory.com.

AB: Validating Facility Operational Life-Cycle Statuses

On September 26, 2023, the Alberta Energy Regulator issued Bulletin 2023-34, announcing that licensees would receive an email communication requesting verification of the operational status of their facilities.

Actions to update facility records may include requesting the AER to cancel the license of a facility that was not constructed, asking the AER to update the link between a Petrinex reporting facility ID and an AER facility license, or adding or changing a link from a compressor or satellite license to another facility license in the Digital Data Submission (DDS) system. Some of these actions can have an impact on the licensee’s LMR.

If the OneStop report identifies your company as having facilities with an “Authorization Lifecycle Status” of “unknown,” but you did not receive the additional information request email from the AER, please contact the AER at FacilityLifeCycle@aer.ca

Additional information can be found here: Bulletin 2023-34

Please contact us at kpyszynski@benoitregulatory.com if you need help with the inactive facility cancellation.

AB: Mandatory Closure Spend Quotas for 2024

On September 28, the AER released the remainder of the 2024 industry closure spend requirement as described in Bulletin 2023-31: Industry-Wide Closure Spend Requirement for 2024.

Licensees must spend a minimum amount annually on abandoning, remediating, and reclaiming their inactive oil and gas sites. The financial submissions under Directive 067 (Schedule 3) must be submitted within 180 days after their fiscal year-end. Licensees can view their 2024 mandatory closure spend quota in OneStop.

Starting in 2024, licensees will no longer have the option to commit to a supplemental closure spend quota. In 2022 and 2023, two alternative requirements were presented as substitutes for committing to spending beyond the mandatory closure spend quota, granting extensions to deadlines for surface equipment removal and expired Crown mineral lease rights.

Any licences that received these extensions will keep them, provided the licensees holding them committed to and are compliant with the 2023 supplemental closure spend and the alternative requirements.

From January 2024 onward, new licenses will not be eligible for alternative requirements.

Additional information can be found here: Bulletin 2023-35

SK: Rescinded MRO 128/22

On September 22, 2023, Minister’s Order (MRO) 155/23 came into effect. This MRO rescinds a preexisting MRO 128/22, which required all non-licensed, designated pipelines to be licensed pursuant to an incident reportable under existing rules if certain criteria are met.

Additional information can be found here: BT2023-010

BC: BCER Increases Availability and Quality of Digital Records

On September 13, 2023, the BCER announced an increase of the total number of fluid analyses available in electronic format, enhancing the availability of digital data previously in PDFs.

The majority of newly available records are for formations encountered when drilling the Montney. This information is accessible in the Data Centre under "Drilling Data for All Wells in BC" by selecting the files for gas, oil, and water analysis.

Additional information can be found here: TU2023-14

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