Whitecap Resources has pled guilty in the Alberta Court of Justice (ACJ) to a charge laid against it by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) in June. The charge was related to the release of hydrogen sulphide from a gas well operated by Whitecap contrary to Section 109(2) under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, according to a Thursday press release. The ACJ has ordered Whitecap to pay an $80,000 penalty, which will see $78,000 go towards a creative sentencing project and $2,000 will be paid as a fine. The AER said the creative sentencing project, which it oversees on behalf of the ACJ, will occur within Mountain View County or the adjacent areas of Kneehill, Red Deer, Clearwater, Rocky View, Wheatland, Calgary or Bighorn No. 8. With the project, it said it must demonstrate benefits to air quality, promote pollution prevention and continuous improvement and have demonstrable benefits to first responders, hospitals, local authorities or educational establishments. The AER will publish one or more requests for proposals using Alberta government practices and oversee the creative sentencing project on behalf of it. The Alberta government praised the progress of cleaning up abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells in January after the AER reported industry had managed to clean up more than 8,000 sites in 2022.READ MORE: Alberta Energy Regulator says industry reclaimed 8,000 rogue oil wells in 2022It said industry spent about $700 million to reduce the number of inactive wells from 91,000 to 83,000 — a reduction of around 9% — and exceeding legal requirements by about 65%.In total, it said more than $1.2 billion was spent on cleanup and closure work including grants to service sector companies under the Alberta Site Rehabilitation program and other sources.
