Oil&Gas

Oil&Gas


Alberta Energy Regulator lacks evidence for tailings spill cleanup claims: study

A new analysis of a decade’s worth of data kept by Alberta’s oil and gas regulator suggests the agency has made unsubstantiated claims about the success of oilsands tailings spills cleanup. “Their own data, their … internal data are not being reflected in the … information that they’re releasing to the public,” the study’s author, […]

Read More


Alberta to relax rule on buying oil, gas wells if municipal taxes unpaid

The Alberta government plans to relax a rule that requires energy companies seeking to buy viable wells from bankruptcy proceedings to first pay all the failed producer’s outstanding taxes. “I have informed the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Orphan Well Association that my office will be amending the order in a way that will protect […]

Read More


Alberta government reducing independence of province’s energy regulator: Opposition

Alberta’s energy minister is undermining the independence of its energy regulator, one of several examples of the United Conservative Party government extending its grasp into supposedly arm’s-length public agencies, observers say. “We’ve been seeing this consistent pattern of political interference in public agencies,” said Nagwan Al-Guneid, energy and climate critic for the New Democrat Opposition. […]

Read More


TMX has met inspection order measures: Energy Regulator

The Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) says Trans Mountain has satisfied measures the company was required to take after receiving an inspection order this summer for inadequately addressing socioeconomic issues stemming from construction of its pipeline expansion project. The order was issued by the CER on July 4th, after a review by an inspection officer and […]

Read More


Feds aimed secret cybersecurity briefing at energy sector executives: memo

OTTAWA — Federal security officials have been briefing leaders of major energy and utility firms on cyberthreats, one element of a concerted government effort to underscore the serious risks to the sector. A newly disclosed Public Safety Canada memo reveals a secret-level June meeting was part of a strategy to raise awareness among company executives […]

Read More


Alberta regulator mulls reducing liability of old wells before cleanup certified

The Alberta Energy Regulator is considering allowing oil and gas companies to reduce their environmental liabilities on old well sites before the cleanup is certified complete. The regulator says the move would reward companies that remediate their old sites promptly, cutting the amount of environmental red ink on their books and making it easier for […]

Read More


How secrecy and regulatory capture drove Alberta’s oil and gas liability crisis

This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. “A hustle in the oil patch”, a “dirty legacy”: These are just a couple of the ways that the escalating costs of abandoning and reclaiming non-producing […]

Read More


Suncor CEO fields tough questions at federal natural resources committee

It’s no secret oilsands companies intend to ramp up production despite the rapidly worsening impacts of the climate crisis, and one longtime industry executive laid out his arguments for doing just that at a federal committee Monday. Testimony from Rich Kruger, CEO of Suncor, made a spirited case for continuing to pull fossil fuels out […]

Read More


‘Hard to believe it’s real’: B.C.’s energy regulator repeatedly gave Coastal GasLink a pass on alleged environmental infractions

When officials from the BC Energy Regulator travelled to Wet’suwet’en territory in September 2022, they were planning a routine inspection of a fish-bearing stream. Two years had passed since Coastal GasLink completed installation of a section of pipeline through the stream, a tributary of Tchesinkut Creek, near the community of Burns Lake in northwest B.C. […]

Read More


Academic report calls for public inquiry into Alberta Energy Regulator

Academics at the University of Calgary are calling for a public review of the Alberta Energy Regulator, describing it as secretive and too close to industry. In a peer-reviewed report issued by the university’s School For Public Policy, three authors examine what they call a “massive policy failure” in dealing with the large and growing […]

Read More


Embattled energy company fights regulator over seizure of thousands of wells

CALGARY — An embattled Calgary energy company is fighting the provincial regulator’s decision to seize thousands of its inactive wells. AlphaBow Energy has complained to the Alberta ombudsman and the province’s information and privacy commissioner over the Alberta Energy Regulator transferring control of more than 6,000 wells, pipeline segments and other facilities to the Orphan […]

Read More


Alberta’s ‘war room’ is back with massive ad spend revealed in annual report

EDMONTON — New documents outline a massive increase in public funding for the Canadian Energy Centre’s campaign to change attitudes toward Alberta’s oil and gas. An agency founded by Alberta’s United Conservative government to fight what it calls misinformation about the province’s industry and otherwise known as the “war room,” the centre’s most recent annual […]

Read More