In collaboration with Alberta Energy, RMA hosted a webinar on Thursday, July 31, 2020 to discuss Bill 12: Liabilities Management Statutes Amendment Act, the Site Rehabilitation Program, and the Orphan Fund Delegated Administration Amendment Regulation (OFDAF) to the Oil and Gas Conservation Act.
The webinar covered a wide range of items, including:
- Reasonable care under Bill 12, including weed control and routine maintenance. Licensees must provide reasonable care for their oil and gas well sites:
- Orphan Well – if a well has been designated by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) as an orphan, the Orphan Well Association (OWA) will assume management of it and will be responsible for providing reasonable care.
- Abandoned Well – the licensee or working interest participant is responsible for providing reasonable care.
- In the case that the OWA or licensee is not providing reasonable care, the land owner or municipality should contact the AER, who will be responsible for mandating reasonable care.
- Bill 12 and the OFDAF state that the Orphan Fund may be used for reasonable care and measures to prevent impairment or damage, suspension costs, abandonment costs, and remediation costs on smaller and large facilities.
- The OWA must pay municipal taxes, royalties, and payments to the landowner on any well site that can still produce, beginning from the time that ownership was transferred to the OWA.
- There are some cases where a municipality can negotiate with the AER for existing tax arrears to be paid. To enable this, municipalities would have to make the case that it would be in the public interest for those tax arrears to be paid. Alberta Energy provides some examples of cases where tax arrears may be paid in the webinar.
The recording of the webinar is now available online. The password is Qn##fL02.
Alberta Energy is also in the process of developing supplementary resources to further support RMA members, including:
- A factsheet on the Liabilities Management Statues Amendment Act; and
- A FAQ sheet based on questions from the RMA board and members. RMA will distribute the FAQ to members when it is received from Alberta Energy.
For enquiries, please contact:
Alex Mochid
Policy Advisor
alex@RMAlberta.com
Tasha Blumenthal
Director of External Relations & Advocacy
tasha@RMAlberta.com