Drilling & Completions Special Interest Group: Area Based Regulation Pilot Project

When:  Mar 27, 2018 from 11:30 AM to 01:00 PM (MT)
Associated with  Calgary Section

Drilling and Completions Special Interest Group:
Area Based Regulation Pilot Project - Enabling the Use of Alternatives to High-quality Non-saline Water by the Oil and Gas Sector in MD of Greenview

Date: Tuesday, 27 March 2018
Speaker: Gavin Law, Technical Manager - Clear Environmental Solutions; Katherine Sinex, Chevron; Scott Millar, Director of Area-based Regulation - AER
Location: Calgary Petroleum Club
Time: 11:30 am – 1:00 pm  
Cost: $45 SPE Members, $55 Non-members, $15 Students

Abstract:

Unconventional oil and gas development in the MD of Greenview, specifically in the area surrounding Fox Creek, requires a lot of water.  As companies move from exploration to development phases, and new companies enter into this space, the volume of water required to support these operations will increase. This increased water consumption has raised stakeholder concerns that local surface and groundwater sources will be negatively impacted by the oil and gas industry’s increasing need for water.

To address this specific concern, the Alberta Energy Regulator and Alberta Environment and Parks established a multi-stakeholder panel to make recommendations that could be piloted in the MD of Greenview to reduce water consumption.  These recommendations touched on policies, regulations, guidelines, and best practices that not only focused on reducing water consumption and increasing public awareness, but also highlighted both Government and Industry’s commitment to doing so.

The intent of this presentation is to (1) discuss the mandate and scope of the multi-stakeholder panel; (2) provide context to the formulation of the recommendations; 3) discuss the barriers that exist when attempting to pilot these recommendations; and 4) provide a status update on the implementation of the recommendations.



Speaker Bio:

Gavin Law

Gavin Law is the Technical Manager of Clear Environmental Solutions in Calgary, Alberta. At Clear Environmental he is the point of contact for technical and regulatory guidance for Clear’s operations through Western Canada.  Gavin also provides support to Clears’ parent company CES Energy Solutions with their multitude of operations across North America.  Presently he is vetting chemical and mechanical treatment technologies for water and waste to determine their feasibility in both the current and projected regulatory climate.

Gavin has over 20 years’ experience working in a variety of technical roles in a range of diverse industries. He has been involved with water and waste treatment, environmental management systems, meteorology and production chemistry throughout Manitoba, Nunavut and Western Canada.

Gavin lives in Calgary, Alberta with his wife Sonia and boy’s Denis and Vincent.  He holds a first degree black belt in kung-fu and volunteers at Rising Sun Kung-Fu, a Martial Arts school in Calgary, lending his experience teaching children and adults twice a week

Katherine Sinex

Katherine has worked for Chevron for the past 17 years in a multitude of capacities.  The early years of her career were in subsurface teams in Calgary, after which she transitioned to the company’s headquarters in San Ramon, California to join the Chevron Energy Technology Company worldwide consulting team as a Reservoir Simulation Engineer. There, Katherine led Chevron’s global Reservoir Simulation Network of nearly 1000 members.  Subsequently, she became the lead petroleum engineer on a deep-water asset. Here she transitioned from subsurface into business planning where she created the organizational competency and processes to steward funding requests for more than two dozen major capital projects in just one year.  In 2013 she returned to Canada to work on the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint venture as Chevron’s lead reservoir engineer and reserves steward.  She moved into her role as Chevron Canada’s Policy Advisor in 2015 which is the role that she held while participating in the ABR panel. Katherine has since moved into her current role as the Manager of Liard/Horn River Resources.

Scott Millar

Scott Millar is a Director of Area-based Regulation with the Alberta Energy Regulator in Alberta, Canada. Scott is currently working to develop new approaches to developing regulatory rules for the energy sector that include collaborative engagement with stakeholders and integrated sub-surface and surface resource assessments. Scott was also a lead participant in the Government of Alberta’s Regulatory Enhancement Project, which led to the creation of a single regulatory authority for energy resource activities (the Alberta Energy Regulator).

Scott comes from a background of environmental science, specifically fisheries management, and spent about a decade and a half conducting fisheries field programs across western Canada, the Northwest Territories, and north-western United States. 

Scott lives in rural Alberta with his wife Leanne and daughter Shannon. He is an avid runner and a strong supporter of Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital.


 

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