SUNDRE - Sundre Petroleum Operator’s Group (SPOG) is keeping busy on several fronts these days, including ongoing work to ensure that members companies, first responders, regulators and others can work together in future emergency situations, says executive director Tracey McCrimmon.
Headquartered in Olds, SPOG is a collection of oil and gas companies with operations in the district. It promotes awareness of industry activities and issues through resident visits, workshops and other activities.
SPOG also has associate community members, including Mountain View County and Town of Sundre representatives.
Officials with SPOG have been in contact with officials from Clearwater County, Mountain View County and other stakeholders about the regional emergency management pilot, she said.
“We are working on a pilot for this area to see whether regional emergency management is a doable solution,” said McCrimmon, who noted work on putting the pilot together began in 2022.
“We are working with Alberta Emergency Management Agency because they are the supporters of this to see what the next steps are.”
Bringing area first responders and SPOG companies together would benefit everyone, she said.
“We have all of these folks who have full ICS (incident command system) training that can definitely support each other,” she said.
“Basically (the goal is) creating an incident management team that in a case of an emergency can take the resources we have with industry to help support the community and the municipality, where we would work with our first responders to help provide support.”
The pilot program's proposed budget will go to the provincial government for consideration this quarter, she said.
Planning is also underway for an upcoming multi-company emergency response exercise, she said.
“We are probably going to be running it in the fall and it is going to be a major exercise that will include municipalities,” she said. “The planning portion of that comes after the mutual aid meeting this month.”
Further details on the exercise will be released soon, she said.
Work on Neighbour’s Day 2023 is also underway, she said.
“We do like that second Friday in August, so tentatively we will stick with that,” she said.
Oil and gas activity has have been steady in the SPOG area in recent months, she noted.
“Some of the smaller companies are getting busier, having quite a bit of success bringing old wells back online and getting production out of them,” she said. “We are seeing healthy activity, I would say.”
The recent move to the new SPOG office in Olds, from Sundre, has already had some positive impacts, she said.
“We appreciate the (internet) connectivity that we now have to be able to provide all of our emergency response support through our 1-800 with the resources we have in this office,” she said, adding that, “We are still committed to all our stakeholders, and Sundre is a whole component of our stakeholders.”
Planning is gearing up for the 2023 resident visitor program, she said.
“Typically at this time of year we get companies to let us know if their ERPs (emergence response programs) have changed and start gathering that information,” she said.
Consultants who have worked on ERPs in the district will be working on field visits this year, she said.
“We do most of our engagement over the phone and then our ground-truthing (identifying what buildings are on a property) and new locations in person, so all of that process, what we’ve done for the past 10 plus years, will continue. Our process won’t change,” she said.
Angela Aalbers, reeve of Mountain View County, calls SPOG a valuable community partner in 2023.
“Mountain View County has a long and productive history with the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group,” said Aalbers. “The county values the relationships formed with industry partners, community and provincial representatives that work on emergency response planning, environmental opportunities, and engaging county residents on various industry initiatives and projects.
“Council appreciates the expertise around the SPOG table, paired with the feedback received directly from members of the community participating on the committee, which helps to inform county-related policy and procedure.”
