They came for the food, the giveaways and a chance to talk shop with representatives from oil and gas companies, municipalities and industry regulators.
Area residents milled around the Sundre Arena on Sept. 14 checking out nearly 40 booths set up for this year’s Sundre Petroleum Operators Group's (SPOG) Neighbours’ Day.
“I think it is held on the premise that our industry doesn’t just want to be operators in the area, they want to be neighbours,” said SPOG executive director Tracey McCrimmon. “And so it’s on the good neighbour policy that you can come and break bread and you can talk to your community and neighbours, you can talk to your industry neighbours, you can connect with your municipalities and ask any questions that you have.”
Pembina Pipeline representatives answered questions about their main installation in the area -- the Caroline-Brazeau line. Top of mind for many was the stalled Trans Mountain pipeline project.
“Well, it seems like a lot of people are actually for the pipeline and against the current government,” said Judy Scott, who is in Pembina’s emergency management department.
TAQA representative Brad Bouchard laughed at the run on handouts his company had available at the event. Cleaned out by the end of lunch, Bouchard said he had a lot of area landowners visiting the booth.
“We have production on their land. A lot of it, it’s a meet-and-greet. Like ‘Hey, you have a well on our place,” he said.
TAQA’s North American oil and gas business is headquartered in Calgary and focused on conventional oil and gas exploration and production.
“We have a fairly large production presence out west on the west side of the SPOG area all the way through Caroline -- a couple gas plants and lots of wells,” said Bouchard.
TAQA is not actively drilling in the SPOG area right now, he said, adding the company’s focus right now is on keeping existing installations running safely and smoothly.
Visitors to NAL Resources’ booth got acquainted with the oil, liquids and natural gas exploration and production going on in the Sundre and Caroline area.
“We do have some drilling going on again which we haven’t had for the last five years or so. It’s a nice change to the quiet times we’ve had,” said Rob Smith, an NAL Resources field operator manning the company’s booth in the afternoon.
Most of the questions Tim Adams answered at Canlin’s booth centred around who the company was.
This would be Canlin’s first Neighbours' Day, although its predecessor has had a presence there for years.
“We’re a natural gas producer. We took over a bunch of old Shell assets in 2014 – Panther, Burnt Timber. We have a corridor of infrastructure in the foothills including the Wildcat Hills gas plant then we also send gas north up to the Caroline gas plant. Mostly sour gas production,” said Adams, the superintendent of the Wildcat Hills District.
New drilling isn’t in the company’s cards. Canlin, said Adams, is focused on low decline, long-life base production.
A bevy of other booths offered information on new regulatory standards and upcoming community events. SPOG organizers were especially pleased that the Alberta Emergency Management Agency had a command vehicle on display.
“This is the first time they’ve brought that and it’s really interesting,” said SPOG’s executive director.
Next door in the curling rink, Neighbours’ Day attendees as well as numerous classes from the adjacent schools, filed through farm and rural safety displays hosted by the Sundre Agricultural Society.
McCrimmon said she was pleased with the number of attendees at the event.
“Turnout-wise we’re pretty happy with the numbers considering what a cool morning it is. It’s nice to see people come out and have a chat with some of our representatives from our stakeholders.”
