Here’s the facts in a case study of an Alberta orphan well, including what is and is not paid for by provincial taxpayers:

1. Wellsite acquired by agreement in 2005. Sold to a company that became insolvent in 2016 (insolvency trustee appointed).

🧵1/n 2. Operator stopped paying the agreed annual compensation amount after 2014, a (low) $2,200 / year consisting of:

- $600 / yr for loss of use of 2.99 acres (farm loss); &,

- $1,600/ yr for adverse effect including operational nuisance & inconvenience to the landowner.

🧵2/n

10 reasons (there’s more) why review of the Alberta Energy Regulator leading to reform are required:

1. It can be shown that the AER regularly abuses the right to be heard of stakeholders adversely affected by its decisions by refusing to conduct hearings on applications.

1/n 2. Similarly the AER refuses to conduct “regulatory appeals” of potentially flawed decisions made without hearings and additionally refuses to conduct reconsiderations of flawed decisions including when circumstances materially change.

2/n

In April it’ll be five years since I was recruited by @ALDPCoalition to host a press conference to raise awareness about massive unfunded Alberta oil & gas liabilities.

Two elections later, discussion’s still on size of the problem, not solutions.

1/n

cbc.ca/amp/1.5089254 It makes no difference if the Alberta govt. dictates to Edmonton Police Service as to breaking up homeless camps, or to the oil & gas police - the @AER_news - to ignore oil & gas laws.

Either way it’s a police state acting for a few against the interests of most Albertans.

2/n

“”I don’t think the industry has any intention whatsoever of paying that bill,” Hislop said.”

Alberta law is not based on oil & gas industry intentions.

Is the public being conditioned by journalists & academics pick up a $260 billion industry tab?

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lethbridgeherald.com/news/lethbridg… The headline in the Lethbridge Herald reads: “Taxpayers to pay the price for unethical oil, SACPA told”.

Such a prediction can only happen if (1) law continues to be ignored including by the Alberta Energy Regulator; and/or (2) the laws of Alberta are significantly changed.

2/n

Polluter pay. #RealTalkRJ

Just before COVID, co-host @RKBtoo and I held a workshop. We identified unfunded oil & gas liabilities beyond decommissioning and land cleanup costs - over $1/4 Trillion.
🧵1/n
https://1/www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/aldp-workshop-1.5449180 Yesterday a guest on @RealTalkRJ referred to $300 billion in oil & gas liabilities, a figure rounded up FROM OTHER ESTIMATES of $260 billion. $40 billion’s a whack of dough so this caused some criticism.
2/n

At Armisie field yesterday in urban Edmonton. During prohibited flaring, fugitive sour gas emissions have occurred in the past.

Me: You still flaring (incinerating) gas?

Operator: Yes. The gas compressor is still being repaired.

Flaring permit?

AER Directive 060 expands on section 8.080 of the Oil & Gas Conservation Rules entitled “Burning vented gas”:

RECLAMATION CERTIFICATION of “specified land” is what the @AER_news can’t manage to do properly in a great number of cases as disclosed by the @AuditorGenAB. What’s going on and why is it unacceptable and potentially costly for taxpayers?
A 🧵. 1/n The duties to conserve, reclaim, & have “specified land” certified by the Govt. of Alberta as properly reclaimed is set out in Part 6, section 137 of the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA). Specified land is land taken, held, or used for certain activities.
2/n

Thanks @BankesNigel for your @ABlawg post on matters of “entitlement” to hold a well licence, which aligns with argument I made to AER that was ignored.

Ensuring well licenses are held by entitled persons (with a property interest in the minerals) is a basic AER function.
1/n

https://twitter.com/ablawg/status/1640383344893640704

As evidenced by your review, AER is not carrying out its basic but critical mandate to ensure well licenses are only held in compliance with S. 16 of the Oil & Gas Conservation Act. The legislated procedure in S. 16(2) of the Act is especially important in certain cases..
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Alberta Auditor General Doug Wylie’s March 2023 report incl. Liability Management of (Non-Oil Sands) Oil and Gas Infrastructure (link) provides fodder for discussion on Alberta Energy Regulator mandate fulfilment failures.

TODAY: “Legacy wells”
1/n

oag.ab.ca/wp-content/upl… Report Glossary provides definition of “legacy sites” and characterizes these as sites where operators “do not exist”. This IS the definition of an orphan site. Yet the report (inaccurately?) states there is no financial backstop like the Orphan Fund for legacy sites.
2/n

This piece proves Premier and UCP don’t have a clue about oil & gas law or facts:

“Smith acknowledged Alberta first needs to figure out how to get orphan wells reclaimed before requiring renewables companies to do the same”

Nothing to figure out! 1/n
edmonton.ctvnews.ca/we-are-a-natur… Either:

a) Ensure the Regulator charges a levy on industry each year to be sufficient to retire all orphans as required by law; or

b) Cabinet can name another body to do the job in accordance with law if the Regulator can’t or won’t, as also contemplated by law.
2/n

UCP Bill 1 also created Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act. The law is also SAID to be a clamp down on protestors, but it clearly allows for huge fines and jail terms:
- for those entering on a well site without excuse; or,
- for oil & gas personnel going off site.
1/n

https://twitter.com/nickcunningham1/status/1638566863100866565

To facilitate the discussion I drew in red boundaries of a well site said to be established by a 1962 "surface lease" below:
Inside the red boundary is "essential infrastructure" of the well licensee. Outside the red boundary is the agricultural "essential infrastructure".
2/n

Time to explain:

1. What is "CStar"? (Royalty reduction program to incentivize well drilling (2016, NDP govt.).

2. What is the proposed #RStar program and how would it extend CStar?

3. What royalties are (fee paid to owner of a mineral like oil, gas, coal by producer).
1/n CStar simplified: Left graph shows how C* works. A formula that represents drilling costs (based on depth, horizontal reach and fracturing sand costs) is used to calculate C*. The well licensee pays reduced 5% royalty until the well produces product equaling C*.
2/n

Premier has me blocked, but it would appear she accused the NDP of not liking facts by tweeting incorrect or irrelevant facts.

Improper use of the term “abandoned” oil sites by politicians in general is also a problem. Abandoned wells often confused with orphaned wells.
1/n

https://twitter.com/alyslinn/status/1638240316212801544

When NDP formed government, wells named as orphans by the AER increased because licensees went bankrupt. The governing party has no control and should not interfere with how the AER enforces the law governing the Orphan Fund. Bankruptcy is federal law.
2/n

This claim that the AER does not need to consider the public interest is inaccurate. It can be traced back to when the AER’s enabling statute was drafted, but related regulations (below) that require consideration of what amounts to the public interest were not yet drafted.
1/n

https://twitter.com/politicalham/status/1637992531802882048

The courts have also confirmed that the AER must consider the public interest and the AER denied metallurgical coal licenses and permits finding the project was not in the public interest. That decision still stands.
2/n

I must be an “activist” according to @BlairKing_ca’s definition. One Tweeting in support of the Alberta Energy Regulator had better be offering only extremely limited support like I do. This is because the AER just can’t manage to carry out its complex, difficult mandate.
1/n

https://twitter.com/blairking_ca/status/1638250804170854400

I can prove what I said. In fact the record of AER Proceeding 411 and Decision Report No. 2022 ABAER 002 clearly document just how incompetent, captured, or both the AER is. Many other documents available from the AER’s website prove this.
2/n

Smiling Paul McLaughlin of @RuralMA on TV.

Has @PeterGuthrie99 provided a bold, courageous solution to oil and gas municipal tax delinquency?

Or is Ministerial Order 043/2023 to the Regulator just a "nothingburger" as per a law professor emeritus?
1/n
edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2… Prof. @BankesNigel breaks down the Ministerial Order from the Minister giving instructions to the @AER_news in this Tweet to the Minister: In short, he concludes it's a nothing burger drafted in haste:
2/n

https://twitter.com/BankesNigel/status/1638061309085491205?s=20

#KrisKinnear is said by @DonBraid to be working on flarepit and abandoned well policy in the Premier's Calgary office.

He's unqualified & potentially dangerous - a lobbyist.

Illegal and unsafe use of plunger lifts in oil wells impressed him greatly:
1/n
In an Alberta Enterprise Group video, Danielle Smith interviews Kinnear on the #RStarScam. Kinnear feels small companies are able to do what large companies cannot. He talks about a welder (Tim Reeves) purchasing wells and using plunger lift (17:50)
2/n

#KrisKinnear stars as a landowner with a problem flare pit in this short film, an advertisement for #RStar.

⁦@DonBraid⁩ column states that Kinnear is “Smith’s special projects manager who works on policy for flare pits and abandoned wells”.
🧵/1 #RStar lobby:

“He (like Smith) was a lobbyist around that issue. According to the premier, he quit that position in October …But the NDP produced a registry document listing him as a director of Sustaining Alberta’s Energy Network, a non-profit.”
/2

calgaryherald.com/opinion/column…

Trespass (note proper spelling) by oil & gas companies on private lands is rampant in Alberta.

I’d venture to say trespass by federal govt. employees is virtually non-existent.

What to do about this?
Fix the non existent problem and ignore the acute problem of course!
1/n

https://twitter.com/rjsigurdson/status/1635315268984668160

Is the Government of Canada trespassing in Alberta? Can a Government trespass?

Here’s the amendment to the Petty Trespass Act (including the correct spelling).
2/n

Rather than clarifying, instead of sticking to messaging that @PeterGuthrie99 is performing consultations with everyone except the public who will pick up the tab, the Premier adds to #RStar confusion on her Saturday morning show at 15:30.
Comments. 1/n
globalnews.ca/edmonton/progr… To begin, perhaps the Premier didn't speak to her minister or is overriding his supposed shelving of the Pilot project as reported by @EmmaLGraney? Whatever reason, the Premier gave a full steam ahead impression the next morning on the radio.
2/n

https://twitter.com/EmmaLGraney/status/1629268466695024640?s=20

Follower @MargTokar asked me to comment on a great piece (below) by the @thenarwhalca.

My comments on how the relentless @OilGasCanada lobby crossed a line - mounted inappropriate attack on the participatory and safety rights of landowners.
1/n
thenarwhal.ca/capp-oil-lobby… Decades ago mineral owners & those who acquired rights to develop subsurface petroleum & natural gas resources had the common law right to use land surfaces they did not own. This changed somewhat no later than 1947 in Alberta. The law today includes the Surface Rights Act.
2/n