F€B 2 7 198& Energy Resources Conservation Board 640 Fifth Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta Canada T2P3G4 Informational Letter IL 86-1 To: All Oil and Gas Operators 21 February 1986 WELL LICENCE DEPOSITS The requirement that each applicant for a well licence provide a deposit to guarantee the proper drilling, control, completion, suspension, or abandonment of the well has been dropped. In its place the Board has established a special well fund to be used to finance abandonment or other operations which might be necessary in the few instances where a licensee cannot be found or is unable to carry out proper operations. The establishment of the fund has been agreed to by the Alberta Government and representatives of the petroleum industry associations. The deposit amounts were so small that little protection was afforded against large expenditures where a licensee did not exist or was not able to meet his responsibilities, and increasing the deposit to a meaningful amount was not considered feasible. In addition, the administration of the deposit system was costly. The special well fund will be established from existing deposits that cannot be returned because the depositor cannot be traced, and a transfer of funds from the Board's surplus account. It will be maintained through interest earnings and annual budget contributions as required. Sections 2.060, 2.070, and 2.080 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations have been repealed. Deposits held by the Board or the Provincial Treasurer will be returned without application. There will be a few exceptions to this, such as where a Board order to abandon a well is outstanding because the licensee is experiencing serious financial problems. In these instances, the deposit will not be returned until the wells in question are properly abandoned. If any operators believe they have a deposit and do not have it fully returned by 31 May 1986, they should contact the Controller for the Energy Resources Conservation Board at 297-8329 in Calgary. It should also be noted that, in accordance with section 92 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Act, the absence of a well licence deposit does not relieve the licensee of a well of liability for any costs of or incidental to the control, completion, suspension or abandonment of a well, and does not reduce his liability for those costs. V. Millard Chairman I ( MAR 1 4 1986 Energy Resources Conservation Board 640 Fifth Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta Canada T2P3G4 Informational Letter 1L 86-2 To: All Oil, Gas, and Pipeline Operators 5 March 1986 CRITERIA FOR THE EXEMPTION OF SWEET GAS PROCESSING PLANTS FROM APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS UNDER THE CLEAN AIR ACT AND THE CLEAN WATER ACT This Informational Letter is oompatihle with the requirements of Informational Letter IL 80-30. Alberta Environment and the Energy Resources Conservation Board reviewed the application handling procedures for gas processing plants and determined that certain sweet gas processing plants should be exempted from the requirements to apply to Alberta Environment for permits and licences under the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. The Clean Air (General) Amendment Regulation and the Clean Water (General) Amendment Regulation were recently issued formalizing this change. Appendix I of this Informational Letter provides details of how to determine whether or not a sweet gas processing plant is exempt from sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. All gas processing plants will continue to be subject to section 26 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Act. Section 15.050 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations describes the information requirements for applications for gas processing plants. To facilitate handling of applications by the Board (and Alberta Environment for plants that are not exempt), the following additional information is required regardless of the plant's exemption status: • maximum rated capacity of equipment which emits NO^ (kW), • applicable NO^ emission factors (g/kW/hr), - 2 - • total NO^ emissions (kg/hr), and • exhaust stack helght(s) and corresponding building helght(s). ISSUED at Calgary, Alberta, on 6 March 1986. W. Solodzuk Deputy Minister Alberta Environment Vlfe Chairman Energy Resources ^o^iservatlon Board APPENDIX I EXEMPTION CRITERIA 1 . Clean Air Act A sweet gas plant is exempt from sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Clean Air Act if its total oxides of nitrogen (NO^) emissions are equal to or less than 16 kg/hr. To determine if a sweet gas plant is exempt from licensing under the Clean Air Act, estimate the total NO^ emission (NO + NO2) using one of the following: (a) manufacturer's NO^ emission factors; (b) United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. E.P.A.) NO^ emission factors ("Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors, Publication AP-42 (1981)"); or (c) the following factors: • gas-fired internal combustion reciprocating engines - 1481 x 10~^ g/J* • gas-fired turbines - 126 x 10"^ g/J • gas-fired steam generating units, heaters, boilers - 99 x 10~^ g/J Maximum rated horsepower for normal operation, corrected for site elevation, shall be used in the determination of total NO^. Such corrections must be documented. NO^ emissions from flare stacks and pits may be excluded. Intermittent NO^ emissions from standby equipment and those used for emergency purposes may be omitted from the total NO^ calculation. For the purpose of this exemption, standby equipment does not include equipment idle as a result of over-design or temporary reductions in throughput . Any subsequent expansion or modification to a sweet gas plant that results in the total NO^ emissions exceeding 16 kg/hr will render the plant subject to the approval requirements of the Clean Air Act. Note that regardless of exemption status, the requirement that exhaust stack heights be not less than 1.5 times the peak height of the associated building is still in effect. Where g/j means grams of NO^ per Joule of energy input to the unit. 2 2 . Clean Water Act A sweet gas plant is exempt from sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Clean Water Act if the following criteria are met: • no industrial landfill on site, • no sewage produced, or any sewage which is produced goes to a pit-type toilet, sewage field, leaching cesspool, or municipal plant , • no discharge of process liquids, waste liquids, or produced water to the surrounding watershed, • all above ground tanks for the containment or treatment of process water, wastewater, waste liquids, sewage, or produced water must be diked, • no on-site pits, ponds, or lagoons for the containment or treatment of liquids, except flare pits or other small pits which comply with the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, • no wastewater irrigation on site, and • no significant probability of spills or leaks which would contaminate surface runoff water, groundwater, or soil. These criteria supersede the requirements for licensing and operation of sweet Class A plants as outlined in the Gas Processing Waste Water Management Standards - September 1973 issued by Alberta Environment. Digitized by tlie Internet Arcliive in 2015 littps://arcliive.org/cletails/energyresources198612