The AER published Bulletin 2023-34 on September 26, 2023, to inform licensees that information is necessary to validate the operational lifecycle status of some facilities due to discrepancies between the AER’s facility licensing information and the Government of Alberta’s Petrinex reporting system.
Any facility that is assigned an “inactive” status, or where the operational lifecycle status cannot be verified, will be included in the licensee’s assessed inactive liability beginning in January 2024. This may 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
Actions to update facility records may include the following:
· Cancelling a facility licence: In the event a facility licence needs to be cancelled because: it was never constructed; the facility was incorrectly licenced; there are duplicate licences for the same facility at the same location; there are multiple licences for different components at one facility; or the facility licence issued under Directive 056 has been replaced by a waste management approval, please email ApplicationAssessment@aer.ca.
· Changing the link between a Petrinex reporting facility ID and an AER licence: See the “Changing a Facility Licence Link” tip in the Petrinex User Resource Centre.
If you would like Benoit to review any facilities that have unknown status please contact us at mronald@benoitregulatory.com.
AB: Licensee-Specific Closure Quotas - Reminder
Each oil and gas licensee with inactive wells and facilities is required to meet an individual annual mandatory closure spend quota. 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.
