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Alberta unveils process for paying out $1 billion in oilfield cleanup grants

Last Updated Apr 24, 2020 at 1:19 pm MDT

Minister of Energy Sonya Savage listens while Premier Jason Kenney responds to the federal approval of the Trans Mountain Pipeline in Edmonton on June 18, 2019. Oilfield services companies in Alberta will be able to apply through an online portal on May 1 for grants under the $1-billion oilfield rehabilitation program announced by the federal government last week. Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage says the grant money will be doled out by her department in $100-million increments with an initial focus on service companies that have been most significantly impacted by the unprecedented economic downturn. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken

CALGARY — Oilfield services companies in Alberta will be able to apply through an online portal starting May 1 for $1 billion in grants under the oilfield rehabilitation program announced by the federal government last week.

Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage says $100-million increments would provide grants to service businesses impacted by the economic downturn.

The grants amount from 25 up to 100 per cent of the total project costs to the service company cleaning up the site.

Amounts also depend on how able the oil and gas company responsible can assist in the cleanup.

“Alberta’s energy industry is the largest subsector of Canada’s economy, as well as one of its biggest job creators. We are creating almost 5,300 jobs for Alberta’s energy workers while completing important work decommissioning and reclaiming abandoned pump jacks, pipelines and wells.”

Savage says about 5,300 jobs are expected to be created in Alberta, adding the government expects some of those jobs will begin during May.

The first $100 million is to be available for eligible work anywhere in the province with a cap of up to $30,000 per application.

A second increment will focus on sites where the government is covering lease payments to landowners because the oil and gas company can’t or won’t meet its obligations.

The federal government announced a total of $1.7 billion to clean up wells in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, as well as $750 million in loans to help cut methane emissions.

This report contains excerpts from The Canadian Press.