Shell Canada's Alice Murray, who has been involved with Sundre Petroleum Operator's Group (SPOG) since its inception in 1992, says there have been many highlights for the organization over the years. Some of those include the following:• The $3 million Caroline Livestock Study - The scientific study examined the herd health and productivity of 1,600 cows in the SPOG area over 16 years, with 21,474 cow records examined over that time.The study also helped trigger the Western Canada WISSA study, which examined 30,000 cows over one production cycle.“It showed the correlation of findings between the two studies and that herd health and productivity is near or above published benchmarks,” said Murray. “This study was important because it protects two important Alberta industries - agriculture and oil and gas.”• Resident visit program - More than 30,000 resident visits have been conducted over the years, gathering contact information and residential data on 3,000 residents in the SPOG areas. The data gathered is kept in the geo-mapped database for use by companies in emergencies.“To improve public safety, cut costs and be more effective with communication on emergency response, the SPOG companies began jointly doing resident visits in 2000,” she said.• Mutual learning - SPOG companies have pioneered the use of the incident command system and coordinated responses between agencies in the event of emergencies. “The 20 plus SPOG companies work continuously to improve public safety by their response to incidents,” she said. “SPOG holds mock exercises and demonstrations to improve communication and responses.”• Community affairs working group - The group has held more than 150 meetings, offering a “venue for companies and communities to share information. Guest speakers have shared a myriad of information on topics from pine beetle to community histories,” she said.• Neighbour's Day - More than 20,000 visitors have attended the open houses over the past 14 years. “Neighbour's Day is a real community event where the community and industry people get to visit with their neighbours,” she said.• Traffic best management practices - Work has been done to address traffic issues, including not hauling during school bus hours or parking oilfield equipment on roadways, she said.• Proactive engagement process - “This process is about getting all of the stakeholders at the table and collaborating to make projects the best they can be for the industry and the community. The outcome is performance measures that companies can work to meet to mitigate negative impacts of their developments.”- Dan Singleton
