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Part of Site Rehabilitation Program

Site Rehabilitation Program – Overview

This grant program provides funding for abandonment and reclamation work on oil and gas sites in Alberta.

Explore pages in:
Site Rehabilitation Program

Program update

The deadline to submit final invoice reports for work completed under the Site Rehabilitation Program has closed and the program is not accepting any new invoice submissions.

Program update

An additional 45 days for the Site Rehabilitation Program was granted by the federal government.

All application periods are now closed. Although these deadlines are now closed, detailed information about the program is provided for reference and to provide updates on the program status.

Project completion: For all Periods of the program (Periods 1 to 8), work must be completed and invoices must be submitted for the completed work by February 14, 2023 at 4:30 pm.

Visit the Grant invoicing and payment page for more information to assist with invoice submissions including more details about the common invoice submission decline reasons and the specific page reference to the requirement in the Invoice and Reporting Guidelines.

Nominations through the Landowner and Indigenous Community Site Nomination process which were received by March 31, 2022 at 4:30 pm have been posted, however no new site nominations are being accepted.

Overview

The Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP) provides grants to oil field service contractors to perform well, pipeline, and oil and gas site closure and reclamation work.

The program goals are to:

  • immediately get Alberta’s specialized oil and gas labour force back to work
  • accelerate site abandonment and reclamation efforts
  • quickly complete a high volume of environmentally-significant work

Funding

Approximately $1 billion in grant funding has been approved and all grant application periods are now closed.  More details about the funding process, allocations for each period and program statistics can be found on the Grant funding status page.

Contractors with approved grant applications will receive:

  • 10% of the total grant amount once their application is approved
  • up to another 70% of the total grant amount after submitting interim invoicing (70% if the licensee’s municipal taxes are paid in full on the proposed site. If taxes are not paid in full, the interim funding will be 50% of the total grant amount.)
  • the remainder of the grant when the work is completed

Attempting to obtain grant monies for work not done by the applicant, for ineligible costs such as administration fees or commissions, or through providing false or misleading information in the grant application, invoices, or certifications of work, may disqualify the contractor from further participation in the program, or disqualify the sites of the applicable licensee from being eligible for grant funding. Any activity appearing to be fraudulent will be referred to legal authorities for investigation and may be punishable by law.

Regulatory responsibilities

Licensees are responsible for meeting all regulatory requirements for any activity conducted on their sites – whether the work is being funded through a Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP) grant or not. An SRP grant in no way changes the obligations of the licensee to be compliant with regulatory requirements. SRP grants are only awarded when there is a legitimate contract in place between the site licensee and the oil field service contractor doing the work. The relationship between the Government of Alberta and the contractor receiving SRP funding is limited to the approval and provision of the grant itself.

In order to receive an SRP grant, contractors sign an agreement that states - among other things – that the contractor must comply with all Alberta laws including, but not limited to, the Occupational Health and Safety Act; the Surface Rights Act; all other applicable Alberta occupational health and safety legislation and standards; and all relevant regulatory requirements set out by the Alberta Energy Regulator.

If there are any concerns about compliance with regulatory requirements for work being conducted on a particular site, contact the Alberta Energy Regulator at 1-855-297-8311.

Eligibility

Eligible contractors

Contractors who do work such as:

  • upstream oil and gas infrastructure abandonment including:
    • wellsite abandonment
    • pipeline abandonment
    • pipeline segment removal
    • facility abandonment
  • environmental work including:
    • Phase 1 and Phase 2 environmental site assessments
    • remediation
    • reclamation

Eligibility requirements

Oil and gas sites must be located in Alberta and put Albertans to work.

All laws, regulations, directives, and environmental and occupational health and safety standards, including social distancing and COVID-19 related public health orders, measures and guidelines must be followed in carrying out the work.

Contractors must have a valid contract with an Alberta oil and gas licensee.

  • The contract must be fully executed, with no ‘subject to’ clauses, with two exceptions:
    • contracts that are "subject to receiving grant funding" are acceptable
    • contracts that have "subject to" clauses referencing the necessary completion of required abandonment or Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments are acceptable
  • Only the contractor who has signed the agreement with the licensee could apply.
  • The licensee is responsible for ensuring the contractor has the skills, expertise, capacity and equipment to conduct the work to meet all legal requirements.
  • Grant funding will be awarded only to the contractor, not the licensee.

Proof of Sub-contractor Payment

The contractor, prime contractor, or lead contractor who is responsible for doing the contracted work must have applied for the grant. Before interim or final payment is issued, prime contractors and lead contractors must show that their sub-contractors have been paid for the work completed to date. 

Sufficient proof of payment includes a copy of one of the following:

  1. an electronic transfer of funds with bank or other financial institution transaction numbers (NOTE: Remittance advice or internal payment system statements without supporting bank transaction information or statement is not sufficient),
  2. a processed/cleared cheque with bank endorsement information on the back of the cheque, or
  3. a document from the sub-contractor confirming payment receipt. The document must reference their invoice number and amount paid.

Waiver of Pre-Payment Requirement

  • Prime contractors may voluntarily request that the Government of Alberta waive this requirement by following the waiver of pre-payment process described in the updated Invoice and Reporting Guidelines. Templates in Word for the three different types of documents required in the waiver process for proof of sub-contractor payment are available for your use.
    • Forbearance Certificate (PDF or DOCX)
    • Waiver of SRP Pre-Payment Requirement (PDF or DOCX)
    • Direction to Pay (PDF or DOCX)

Eligible activities

The following activities were eligible for grant funding:

  • closure work on inactive wells and pipelines
  • environmental Site Assessments (Phase 1 and Phase 2)
  • remediation
  • reclamation
  • preparation of applications for remediation and reclamation certificates

Ineligible activities

The following activities were not eligible for grant funding:

  • suspension (wells and facilities) and discontinuation (pipelines) costs that are not part of abandonment and reclamation projects
  • non-closure work on producing sites (for example, spill remediation)
  • work on orphan wells (the Orphan Well Association receives dedicated funding and is responsible for cleaning up all orphan wells)
  • closure work outside of Alberta
  • closure work on a site that has already received a reclamation certificate or on reclamation exempt sites – those abandoned before regulatory closure requirements came into effect
  • work completed or in progress before the effective date of the program – May 1, 2020

Eligible costs

All costs associated with completing the work are eligible for grant funding, including:

  • materials and supplies
  • wages
  • equipment rentals
  • laboratory analyses
  • project management and supervision costs
  • costs to prepare required reports for the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER)
  • costs to prepare reclamation or remediation certificate applications
  • lease or rental payment for vehicles

Ineligible costs

  • administration fees, commissions and marketing expenses
  • costs of work to prepare for contract bids, grant applications or contracts
    • similar costs not directly incurred in relation to eligible closure activities
  • overhead-related expenses such as cell phone charges, vehicle purchase payments, insurance payments, etc.

Contact

Connect with the Site Rehabilitation Program, Program Design Implementation and Monitoring Section:

Email: [email protected]

Address:
Alberta Energy and Minerals
9945 108 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta  T5K 2G6

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