Public Notice Process for Oil and Gas Activities

When required, applicants must complete the Public Notice Process before submitting an application to the Ministry of Energy and Resources for the following activities:

• Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Projects
• Off-Target Wells
• Disposal/Injection Wells
• Storage Projects
• CO2 Storage Projects
• Waterflood Projects
• Gas Processing Facilities
• Well Spacing Modification
• Good Production Practice (GPP)
• Concurrent Production
• Measurement Exemptions

An operator conducting Public Notice for an oil and gas application must have the rights or agreements in place to allow them to conduct operations on the wells they are including within their application.

1. Read Directive PNG009: Public Notice Requirements to determine if the proposed application or project requires consent or public notice.
2. Obtain required consents.
   • Refer to Directive PNG009 for consent letter requirements and formatting.
   • Refer to Directive PNG009 before submitting consent letters to affected parties. A consent letter isn't considered valid if it's missing any of the criteria outlined in Directive PNG009.
   • Third-party engineering reports and proprietary seismic data do not have to be shared within the Public Notice Process as long as the remaining data provides enough support and justification.
   • The following clause or any other wording of the same meaning is not considered consent in the letter: "that if there are no responses received by a certain date it will be considered a non-objection…"
   • Hard copies of the Public Notice Form and letter must be mailed to all of the affected parties via registered mail.
   • The Public Notice must also be sent to the ministry at PNsubmission@gov.sk.ca to be posted on the ministry's Public Notice Board.
     
     • The Public Notice Board is updated every Friday. Submissions must be received by the proceeding Wednesday to be posted for that Friday. In the event of a Statutory Holiday the posting date will be the Thursday preceding the Statutory Holiday.
     • The three-week period the notice is open for objection starts when it is posted to the ministry's Public Notice Board.
3. Complete Public Notice notification.
   
   • A consent letter from the affected party must be signed to be valid.
   • Once the Public Notice Process has started, it must be finished.
   • An application cannot be made for a well or project if it's currently posted for public notice.
4. Manage objections.
   
   • It's preferred, but not required, that an objection is made using registered mail and includes a completed Statement of Objection to Public Notice Application form. Regardless of how the objection is made, it's deemed valid by the ministry.
   • Both applicant and objector must keep a record and subsequent correspondence related to resolution or inability to resolve objections.
   • If an objection is received from an offset/impacted party, the applicant must respond and record the objections and subsequent correspondence.
5. Closing of Public Notice.
   
   • Public Notice of an application will closes if:
   • No objections are received within the three weeks of the public notice posting date.
   • Objections are resolved between the affected parties and the company.
   • If objections are received and the applicant and objector cannot come to an agreement, the company may submit the application and disclose there are outstanding unresolved objections from the Public Notice process.
     
     • In this case, the applicant must include the following with their oil and gas application for authorization:
       • the Public Notice;
       • all objections received;
       • all details of attempted resolution of the objection; and
       • notification to the objecting parties that the application was submitted with unresolved objections.

Posting to the ministry's Public Notice Board and a mail notification are the minimum requirements. A company may also conduct any additional notification processes, town hall sessions, advertisements in local media, etc. as required.

In rare instances, during the review process of an application, the ministry may send an application to Public Notice. The applicant is notified if additional notice is being conducted by the Ministry. The ministry may also propose to make changes to pools, spacing areas etc. A Public Notice of these changes is issued in accordance with Directive PNG009.

In circumstances where Canada Post’s mailing services are disrupted due to labour strikes, applicants can utilize this Industry Tip Public Notice Process during a Postal Strike for further guidance on how to complete the Public Notice process.