Alberta Energy Regulator suspends licences of regional oil and gas company

By Medicine Hat News on March 6, 2021.

A private oil and gas company with operations in Cypress County and Taber has had its licenses suspended by the Alberta Energy Regulator.

The AER said Friday that Sanling Energy owes a total of $67 million in security related to abandonment obligations on 2,266 wells, 227 facilities and 2,170 pipelines.

“Repeated attempts to bring SanLing into compliance have failed,” reads an AER statement. “The AER has little confidence in SanLing’s ability to conduct its operations safely and is taking measures to protect the public and environment and to minimize financial risk.”

The order calls for Sanling to safely close down all operations in 30 days or come into compliance with posting secured funds, typically a secured letter of credit, to longer-term liabilities related to well-closure and reclamation.

Last year, Cypress County wrote off $125,000 it was owed from the company for unpaid property tax it now considers uncollectable.

The privately held company does not post information about its operational areas of well locations, but according to most-recently available property tax information posted by the company, it has a major presence in the MD of Taber.

In 2018, Sanling’s tax bill of wells, pipeline and facilities there totalled $1.25 million. Other areas of significance were Vulcan and Lethbridge counties, the Special Areas, as well as MacKenzie County and The M.D. of Northern lights in northern Alberta.

The company also paid $1.38 million in surface rights payments and leases to landowners and leaseholders across Alberta that year.