Oilpatch wants ‘flexibility’ on coming methane cuts

Thousands of jobs in the oilpatch are at risk if governments try to impose the wrong approach to cutting back a highly potent greenhouse gas, says an industry lobby group.

“Let’s take the best opportunities as opposed to being very prescriptive,” Tim McMillan, head of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said Monday.

The federal and Alberta governments, with industry support, have announced plans to reduce emissions of methane by up to 45 per cent by 2025.

Methane is a greenhouse gas considered about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Reducing emissions by sealing off leaks and other releases during energy extraction is considered to be one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

While the province is still considering its approach, Ottawa released draft regulations in the spring.

Environment Canada says its rules would cost about $3.3 billion over 18 years, offset by $1.6 billion in recovered and saleable gas.

But in slides prepared for a meeting with Environment Canada and released to Greenpeace under freedom-ofinformation legislation, industry pegs the tab at $4.1 billion over eight years.

Energy producers want to reduce that difference through flexibility, said McMillan.

Inspections of wells and other facilities should be focused on sites that are likely to yield the highest reductions, he said.

“A blunt instrument would say that all sites, no matter high risk, low risk, big, small, would need to get inspected three times a year.”

But companies should be allowed to focus on “high-risk, high-consequence” sites and inspect others as little as once annually, he said.

The slides suggest industry’s plan could achieve 70 per cent of the reductions at one-third the cost. It would, however, cut about two fewer megatonnes of methane.

Industry also wants to be able to average out reductions over the entire industry.