Oil – Facilities
On February 8, 2024, the Alberta Energy Regulator (“AER”) released a new edition of Directive 023: Oil Sands Project Applications (“Directive 023”), effective immediately. Directive 023 replaced the May 2013 draft edition.
The AER also rescinded Directive 086: Reservoir Containment Application Requirements for Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Projects in the Shallow Athabasca Oil Sands Area, whose requirements were moved into section 6 of Directive 023. References to Directive 023 in Directive 008: Surface Casing Depth Requirements, Directive 056: Energy Development Applications and Schedules, and Manual 020: Coal Development were also updated.
The AER made the following additional changes to Directive 023:
- removed requirements that exist in other directives or provincial legislation, including removing environmental requirements that were also found in the specified enactments;
- aligned the socioeconomic requirements with the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act;
- restructured the environmental and socioeconomic requirements based on the scale of the projects they apply to (e.g., small-scale in situ projects); and
- added a section on in situ life-cycle applications.
