Alberta is taking dramatic steps to overhaul regulations in a corner of the province’s battered energy industry, prompting a surge of new applications as oil prices show signs of firming up.
Some of the world’s largest energy companies – including Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Chevron Corp. – are rushing to take advantage of a new approval process in the Duvernay shale that could serve as a template for rewriting development rules across the entire province.
The region of west-central Alberta has attracted billions of dollars’ worth of investment as companies snapped up drilling rights on vast tracts of land, but development has lagged rival shale zones in the U.S. because of high costs and uncertain commercial prospects – a situation compounded by the plunge in oil prices since last summer.
Now major energy companies are rolling out development plans, encouraged by broad changes contemplated by the Alberta Energy Regulator to the way the province manages oil and gas development. The AER is reviewing several drilling applications under a pilot study designed to compress a scattered permitting process into a single approval that takes as little as 45 days to obtain, although a spokesman said some approvals may take longer.
JEFF LEWIS – Globe and Mail – Apr. 24 2015.
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