Country
Assessment
Section 50 (Gas or Product Conservation) of the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012 , states that for conservation purposes, the minister may require the operator of an oil well to collect and either use or sell the gas produced. Also, the minister may require the operator to analyze gas composition. If, in the opinion of the minister, a product is present in a quantity that can be economically extracted, the minister may require the product’s separation, conservation, and utilization.
Directive PNG017: Measurement Requirements for Oil and Gas Operations, 2015 , provides the regulatory requirements for the measurement, accounting, and reporting of flaring and venting across a variety of oil and gas operations, including flaring and venting at various sites. Directive PNG032: Volumetric, Valuation and Infrastructure Reporting in Petrinex, 2016 , requires all operators to provide well and facility infrastructure information, monthly pipeline split, and volumetric and valuation information electronically via the website of Petrinex. This requirement is stipulated in Section 66 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Act, 1978 , and Section 3 of the Petroleum Registry and Electronics Documents Regulations, 2012. Directive PNG032 also requires all emissions to be calculated and expressed in CO2e. Directive PNG076: Enhanced Production Audit Program, 2016 , sets out the requirements for operators to declare the degree to which they have the infrastructure in place to ensure compliance with the regulator’s measurement and reporting requirements.
Section 122 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012 , provides that the minister may issue administrative penalties if an operator fails to comply with the regulations, including flaring and venting limits, and requirements outlined in Section 51. The operator may apply to the minister within 45 days of receipt of invoice. Failure to submit the required information can be subject to a penalty of Can$100 per day or up to Can$1,000 a month, depending on the violation. Submission of false declaration is penalized up to Can$250,000 per incident. Failure to comply with the minister’s orders is subject to a penalty of Can$5,000 per day, up to a maximum of Can$200,000. Section 13 of Directive PNG076: Enhanced Production Audit Program, 2016 , states that if a declaration is not submitted via Petrinex, the Petrinex error EPP001 will trigger a penalty in accordance with the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012.
The Oil and Gas Emissions Management Regulations, 2019 , set out the penalties for excess emissions. Section 10 states that the minister may impose a penalty on a company whose oil facilities produce, in any year, combined emissions that exceed the limit determined in the regulations calculated using the formula AP = EE ´ D, where AP is the administrative penalty to be paid; EE is the amount by which the combined emissions exceed the combined emissions limit, expressed in tCO2e and calculated for the year in accordance with Section 9; and D is the dollar amount per tonne of excess emissions set out in Table 3 of the regulations’ Appendix. The penalty per tCO2e increases every year until 2024, when the unit penalty is fixed in nominal terms at Can$50.
If a correction results in a change in the combined emissions for a licensee on December 31 of the year for which the combined emissions are calculated, the licensee is required to pay, within the period specified by the minister, a penalty on any amount by which the combined emissions at the oil facilities exceed the limit on combined emissions, calculated in accordance with Section 9, plus interest, calculated, at a rate of 10 percent a year. This payment is in addition to any penalty already paid for that year.
Part XII (Sections 75–77) of the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012 ,16 authorizes the minister to suspend or shut down wells and other production facilities and seal any meter valves.
Directive S-20: Saskatchewan Upstream Flaring and Incineration Requirements, 2011 (last updated in June 2022; see footnote 18), provides comprehensive specifications for upstream oil and gas flaring and incineration performance, equipment spacing, and set-back distances, referencing engineering standards by the American Petroleum Institute and other professional organizations.
Associated gas that is flared or vented within permitted levels is not subject to royalties. According to the Administrative Procedures Related to Associated Gas Royalties/Taxes and Crude Oil and Natural Gas Royalty/Tax Factors Information Circulars, companies are exempt from royalties if royalties make gas production uneconomic. In addition, any gas used for on-site power generation is exempt from royalties. The gas royalty rate may be as high as 12 percent, depending on the type of gas well and the production rate of the well. SaskEnergy is launching a new Associated Gas Conservation Program to create more opportunities in the upstream sector for the sale and movement of methane between oil production facilities for on-site use.
The Saskatchewan Petroleum Innovation Incentive provides a royalty credit for commercial innovation projects new to Saskatchewan that can better manage GHG emissions. The Oil and Gas Processing Investment Incentive offers transferable royalty or freehold production tax credits at a rate of 15 percent of eligible program costs to value-added projects across all oil and gas industry segments such as gas-gathering transport infrastructure and methane gathering projects. The Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012 , allow operators to build pipelines to capture associated gas as qualifying conservation projects to avoid paying penalties.
The 2016 Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change set a federal benchmark, requiring all provinces and territories to implement carbon pollution pricing systems by 2019. Saskatchewan has an output-based pricing system, which is mandatory for facilities emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of CO2e per year and voluntary for facilities emitting more than 10,000 tonnes of CO2e per year. The minimum threshold was removed for upstream oil and gas facilities in late 2020. To comply, companies can pay the Saskatchewan Technology Fund a carbon fee, which was Can$30 (about $22 in May 2023) in 2020.
Many of the regulations on flaring, venting, and emissions cover pipeline and storage facilities. Most oil production in Saskatchewan is exported to other provinces or the United States via pipelines. The gaps in the synchronization of drilling activity with the development of sufficient gas midstream capacity can create bottlenecks and lead to increased flaring or venting.
No evidence regarding targets and limits could be found in the sources consulted.
Ecopetrol controlled the development of hydrocarbon resources until Presidential Decree 1760/2003 introduced two essential changes in the Colombian petroleum industry:
- creation of the ANH as a special entity in charge of administering and regulating hydrocarbons in Colombia (later, Decree 4137/2011 modified the legal status of the ANH and converted it into a state agency)
- transformation of Ecopetrol into a partially state-owned company (Law 1118/2006) dedicated to upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas activities within and outside of Colombia, governed by the applicable private law.
The ANH is under the MME. It has a distinct legal status and enjoys administrative and financial autonomy. Ecopetrol became another company in the market, leaving the sole regulatory and administrative management of hydrocarbons to the ANH. ANH oversees all contractual oil and gas arrangements except for the association contracts Ecopetrol held as of December 31, 2003.
Decree 70/2001 grants powers to the MME as the principal governing body responsible for upstream oil and gas operations. Accordingly, MME Resolution 181495/2009 updated by Resolution 40098/2015, establishes that the MME is responsible for issuing any technical rules and administrative decisions associated with the regulation and imposing applicable sanctions for noncompliance. With Resolution 180877/2012, the ANH and MME executed an interadministrative agreement that delegated certain inspection functions and regulatory activities to the ANH.
When an environmental license is required, it may be granted only at the national level by the National Environmental Licensing Authority (Autoridad Nacional de Licencias Ambientales) in accordance with Decree 1076/2015 .