By Liam Verster

Site Rehabilitation Program

Billion dollar program will clean inactive oil wells, create jobs

Apr 24, 2020 | 2:29 PM

The Alberta Government is rolling out a new, $1-billion Site Rehabilitation Program, to clean up environmental liabilities, create jobs, and boost the economy.

Minister of Energy, Sonya Savage, says the program will launch on May 1, and create approximately 5,300 jobs. Oilfield service companies that perform well, pipeline, and oil and gas closure and reclamation work will be able to apply online for grants to cover the costs of the work. She says those grants will be distributed on a case-by-case basis.

“Some of the well reclamation will get 100 per cent of the costs paid for by the program, some will be 50 per cent, and some will be 25 per cent. And that’s going to be based on a company’s financial ability to pay.”

The first round of this program will see $100-million distributed, with a focus on providing grants to companies that have been hardest hit by the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil price war. In the weeks that follow, funds will be directed to specific regions, where Savage says they will have “the most significant environmental benefit, or where some operators have failed land owners, and have not paid their lease rent.”

This program will also have a “Land Owner Opt In”, for those who want their sites cleaned up and reclaimed.

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The billion dollar funding for the Site Rehabilitation Program is being provided through a Federal Government investment announced last week to clean up inactive oil sites. Savage says though Alberta’s Department of Energy will be administering the program, there will be collaborative work with the Federal Government.

“There will be a Coordinating Committee between Federal and Provincial officials to ensure that the program is being administered properly, that it’s transparent, that it’s achieving its objectives. So there will be regular correspondence and work with the Federal Government ot ensure that the program is meeting its objectives.”

The Site Rehabilitation Program opens to applicants on Friday, May 1. Savage says they hope to have a quick turn around on the first round of grants, in order to get Albertans back to work, and the sites cleaned up quickly.