On 18th January 2023, Nimonik Inc. hosted the inaugural “Calgary Oil & Gas Regulatory and Standards Compliance Day”; the first event in an ongoing series outlining emerging regulatory changes and compliance management solutions. This one-day event aimed to facilitate the discussion of compliance issues and regulatory frameworks applicable to the oil & gas industry.
Agenda
During the event, we covered newly published topics, upcoming regulatory changes for the oil & gas industry, and best practices for compliance management. The event attendees also had the opportunity to connect with industry peers and share compliance challenges.
The Topics were:
- Canada Energy Regulator (CER) Regulated Pipeline Compliance Training and Discussion (Midstream). We discussed O&M regulatory changes, regulatory issues in the US and Canada, and facilitated a discussion of how to manage changing obligations. This session was facilitated by Jesse Dirom from Vertex Consulting.
This presentation reviewed and highlighted the key clauses of the Onshore Pipeline Regulations (OPR) that significantly impact operations and maintenance activities. During the presentation, Jesse also mentioned the active involvement of Indigenous peoples in the consultation process and the role of ‘reasonable care’ in improving environmental management practices and technological standards.
Jesse provided practical tips to avoid non-compliance with the OPR in your organization:
- Follow your internal approved documents to the letter onsite
- Ensure that your spill readiness is constantly evolving and that the staff are trained in both process and implementation of the management plan
- Utilize web-based platforms that tie site-specific information to an area
- Implement and maintain the management system and programs, and notify the CER about any changes.
- General Nimonik demonstration and training covering compliance management software best practices. This session was presented by Nimonik.
Jonathan Brun (CEO) and Luz Gomez (Customer Success Expert) presented “Best Practices for Regulatory Change Management and NimonikApp workflows”, which covered the importance of implementing a comprehensive compliance management program to capture obligations, create actions, and conduct audits to achieve compliance.
We learned from the participants that although many companies in this sector have a system to manage their compliance obligations, more than 70% of the event attendees believed there is still room for improvement. One of the most common ways companies start tracking compliance is by using manually updated spreadsheets based on legal newsletters or third-party curated lists. Nimonik proposes implementing compliance obligation registers that are regularly updated with new documents and changes from the government. These registers have a flexible structure that allows customization based on risk, priority, and resources.
The participants also shared their concerns about compliance management for assets regulated by the CER. For this purpose, it is essential to have robust compliance management programs to build a paper trail demonstrating their external and internal obligations. Nimonik allows tracking those obligations at the document and clause levels and creating categories, custom fields and tags to facilitate information management.
Sessions 3 and 4 were hosted by Hillary Yeung from Horizon Compliance Group Inc.
- Overview of recent regulatory changes related to industrial carbon pollution pricing. The focus was on Alberta’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) Regulation and Saskatchewan’s Output-Based Performance Standards (OBPS) Program..
This presentation provided a high-level overview of the changes to the AlbertaTIER Regulation and the Saskatchewan OBPS emissions pricing system, followed by a discussion of how those changes will affect compliance obligations across the oil & gas industry.
- Overview of upcoming regulatory changes related to methane emissions reduction for the oil & gas industry. This session focused on the proposed federal changes and how they will impact Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The Canadian federal government has proposed to expand the scope of existing regulations concerning the release of methane and certain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for the upstream oil & gas sector. During this session, Hillary reviewed the current regulations and the possible impact of the upcoming changes on the provincial requirements. Hillary also shared her insights on the feasibility of the proposed changes (e.g., flaring/venting elimination) and the ability of current technology to achieve those requirements.
Virtual Session
Over 50 people joined us online. When polled about the current state of their compliance program, only 6.67% of the audience believed they had a robust and mature system already in place, while 66.67% claimed there was room for improvement regarding their program, and 26.67% admitted they had little to no program at all.
Each panelist was able to facilitate a discussion of key questions and provide answers to any technical or specific questions with a degree of detail.
Online meeting video is available here
Satisfaction survey
The survey provided very positive feedback. All the respondents rated either ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Satisfied’ with the performance of the speakers and topics, venue, food and logistics of the conference. The majority of the respondents said the conference sessions were ‘Very relevant’ or ‘Relevant’ to their area of expertise. Over 71.4% were able to make valuable connections at the conference. When asked what they liked most about the conference, the majority of respondents indicated that the ‘topics and content were satisfactory, followed by ‘open discussion’ in relation to changing regulatory landscape and ‘networking’ to make contacts.
Nimonik would like to thank all participants and speakers who attended this first industry event. We are looking forward to hosting more conferences like this in the future.
If you need help implementing a Comprehensive Compliance program for your organization and your stakeholders, please contact us at info@nimonik.com of at +1-888-608-7511
