Guide helps Alberta landowners with energy industry

EDMONTON — Alberta’s energy development landscape is a tangle of regulations and complex relationships. Dealing with industry on this landscape is a daunting prospect for landowners, but a new publication from the Pembina Institute is designed to bring clarity to this relationship.

Based on months of research, the Landowners’ Guide to Oil and Gas Development provides advice on negotiating the best relationship possible between well informed industry representatives and inexperienced property owners or communities. Information in the Landowners Guide is based on a range of interviews with stakeholders from industry, government, regulatory bodies and landowners across the province with direct experience dealing with industry activity on their land.

The guide is a fully revised follow-up to the 2000 publication“When the Oilpatch Comes to Your Backyard,” which was updated in 2004. This earlier version and it’s update remain one of the Pembina Institute’s most important and widely-shared publications.

Monumental changes in fossil fuel extraction technology and government oversight over the past decade has madethis new Landowners’ Guide to Oil and Gas Development the largest publication the Pembina Institute has ever released. The guide is the most comprehensive publication focused on this issue and, as such, it is expected to be a fixture in homes and institutions across the province negotiating this relationship.

The Landowners’ Guide is available for free in print or download at Pembina.org.

Quick facts

Each year the Alberta Energy Regulator receives more than 47,000 applications related to oil and gas operations.
Since 2014, hydraulic fracturing has been completed at more than half of Alberta’s oil or natural gas wells.
The oil and gas technology and services industry nearly tripled in size between 2003 and 2013.
The cost of reclaiming inactive oil and gas wells and abandoned facilities is forecast to be more than $30.6 billion.

Quotes

“The new Landowners’ Guide provides all parties with access to a common body of information about citizens’ rights in Alberta as they relate to oil and gas development.”
— Duncan Kenyon, Program Director, Pembina Institute

“The Guide is a valuable tool for landowners, renters, real estate professionals, the oil and gas industry and any members of the public who may be affected by oil and gas development on adjacent property.”
— Nikki Way, Analyst, Pembina Institute

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Visit the Pembina Institute’s website to download a copy of The Landowner’s Guide