AER Bulletin
Previously, licensees who continued their drilling operations more than six months after it was started filed for and received a “resume approval.” There was no operational reason for this approach. The secondary filing and issuance of another approval were necessary due to how AER legacy systems were configured. Recent changes to OneStop and the Digital Data Submission (“DDS”) system have resolved this issue. Effective immediately, the AER is discontinuing this process. No additional application or approval is required when the licence has been acted upon by the well being spud, and the setting of surface casing has occurred, regardless of the length of time between this and the continuation of the drilling of the main hole. Licensees must provide the appropriate drilling activity notifications in the DDS system as explained in and required under Directive 059: Well Drilling and Completion Data Filing Requirements. Licensees should use the notifications “Drilling to Set Surface Casing Only” followed by “Drilling to Licensed Depth.”
Licensees must still apply to resume drilling when performing additional drilling operations after a previous completion, suspension, or abandonment of their well, as outlined in section 3.010(1)(e) of the Oil and Gas Conservation Rules and section 7 of Directive 056.
