Achi news desk-
Alberta’s Energy Regulator has fined a Calgary-based junior oil and gas producer for failing to meet its emissions and fugitive methane reporting requirements.
The regulator says it has begun investigating Tallahassee Exploration Inc. in 2022 and that it determined the company had breached Alberta’s methane emissions rules on two counts, with both breaches occurring in 2021.
The AER also says Tallahassee provided false or misleading information by resubmitting information from the 2020 reporting period and representing it as data from the 2021 reporting period.
The company has been ordered to pay a fine of $191,885.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and is the second biggest cause of global warming, after carbon dioxide. It is the main element in natural gas and is also a by-product of oil drilling.
Fugitive emissions are a term that refers to the unintentional or unnecessary release of harmful gases into the atmosphere as a result of oil and gas drilling activity.
Canada has set a target of reducing oil and gas methane emissions by at least 75 per cent from 2012 levels by 2030. New proposed federal rules for the oil and gas sector would ban the routine release of methane — a practice known as venting and flaring — from oil and natural gas operations, as well as requiring companies to invest in better leak detection and repair processes.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on May 7, 2024.
