Several Alberta-based energy companies continue to face scrutiny by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) over repeated failures to pay fees owed and clean up regional well sites..Last month, the AER shut down the operations of foreign-owned enterprise SanLing Energy after years of not paying landowners, municipal taxes or local vendors..SanLing Energy also owed $67 million in security payments to the AER related to well sites and infrastructure decommissioning..Despite their repeated failure to comply with past maintenance and cleanup orders, SanLing harvested over 3,781 BOE (Barrels of Oil Equivalent) per day from Alberta’s oil mineral reserves for years..“If SanLing, or any company, wants to do business in Alberta, they must follow our rules. We cannot allow a company that has ignored the rules to continue to operate — that’s not in Alberta’s interest,” said Blair Reilly, AER’s director of enforcement and emergency management..“Repeated attempts by the AER to bring SanLing into compliance have failed. As a result, the AER has little confidence in SanLing’s ability to conduct its operations safely and is taking this measure to protect the public and environment and to minimize financial risk.”.Despite the outstanding issues, AER’s compliance dashboard flagged SanLing six times previously..In September 2020, the company failed to pay a security deposit, was unable to abandon dozens of wells as required and improperly stored waste..They also failed to decommission 2,266 wells, 227 facilities and 2,170 pipelines and did not adhere to regulator orders to complete a detailed operation plan for their suspension tenure..Sustaining Alberta’s Energy Network’s President Kris Kinnear, an energy advocate and landowner, has growing concerns about how long the energy producer continued to operate in Alberta despite repeated failures to the province and its partners..“They harvested our provincial resources for years, without paying landowners, municipal taxes, or the vendors that service their oilfields. This left the Government of Alberta to deal with these liabilities,” said Kinnear..He said the best solutions to these issues often come from the industry itself because their success and their future relies on having a sustainable industry..“I feel that we can be innovative and by utilizing industry experts and what Alberta has to offer, a system could be created to help the companies that have liability issues so that they can become good corporate citizens in Alberta,” he said..“They can become part of the solution instead of being the problem.”.Two weeks ago, the AER also announced it would direct the Orphan Well Association (OWA) and working interest partners of another Calgary-based Energy company Mojek Resources Inc. to take over its wells and facilities after the company failed to clean up multiple spills and comply with multiple orders..The regulator says the escalation of enforcement was deemed necessary when the Calgary-based company failed to comply by March 5 with an order issued January 4 requiring the suspension of its wells and facilities, discontinuation of its pipelines and demonstration of proper care of all of its assets..The AER said the OWA and Mojek’s partners are to suspend all of its oil and gas assets and ensure they are left in a safe state while addressing non-compliances at Mojek sites and confirming a working emergency response number..It said Mojek holds AER licences for 32 wells, 35 pipelines and one facility and owes $1.76 million in security to the AER for its end-of-life obligations, along with debts to the OWA and the AER..“We work with licensees to ensure they understand Alberta’s rules, and the majority of companies follow those rules,” said Reilly..“When they don’t, we take action to protect public safety and the environment.”.Dhaliwal is a Western Standard reporter based in Edmonton
