Oil and Gas – Supplemental Closure Spending
Licensees must spend a minimum amount annually on abandoning, remediating and reclaiming their inactive oil and gas sites. In Bulletin 2023-31: Industry-Wide Closure Spend Requirement for 2024, the AER set the 2024 industry-wide closure spend requirement at $700 million.
Licensee-Specific Quotas
In setting the licensee-specific quotas, the AER considers each licensee’s proportion of the total industry inactive liability and the licensee’s financial health, determined using the financial information provided under Directive 067: Eligibility Requirements for Acquiring and Holding Energy Licences and Approvals. Licensees can view their 2024 mandatory closure spend quote on the AER’s OneStop website.
Supplemental Closure Spend
As of 2024, licensees are no longer able to commit to a supplemental closure spend quota. The AER will continue to explore opportunities to improve the Inventory Reduction Program. In 2022 and 2023, in exchange for committing to spend above the mandatory closure spend quota, the AER offered extensions to deadlines for surface equipment removal and expired Crown mineral lease rights. Any licences that received these extensions will keep them, provided the licensees holding them committed to and are compliant with the 2023 supplemental closure spend and the alternative requirements. As of January 2024, no new licences will receive alternative requirements.
