Oil and Gas Incident Management and Reporting
Upstream oil and gas operators are required to notify and report any incidents that occur in the field to the Government of Saskatchewan's Ministry of Energy and Resources.
1. Requirements for reporting an incident
To ensure incidents are managed in a timely and effective manner, all licensees are required to:
- Have an Integrated Resource Information System (IRIS) account and the appropriate permissions assigned by your IRIS Security Administrator to report an incident;
- Have an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) in place; and
- Be a member in good standing of a local Area Spill Response Unit under the Directive S-01: Saskatchewan Upstream Petroleum Industry Storage Standards.
Note: If the licensee is not a member in good standing of a local Area Spill Response Unit, they must provide all of the necessary spill response equipment and register a spill response plan with the Ministry of Energy and Resources for approval.
2. Reporting an incident
- Call 1-844-764-3637, the ministry's Emergency Support Line, in the event of a spill.
- The operator or licensee of a well, facility, pipeline or flowline must provide notification of an incident and provide details to the ministry.
- If an upstream product or waste is being transported, the upstream owner of the product is responsible for reporting incidents that occur.
3. Clean-up following an incident
The area impacted by an incident must be reclaimed to standards specified by the Minister of Energy and Resources.
- At a minimum, industry should reference the Directive PNG033: Phase II Environmental Site Assessment.
- The ministry will also accept remediation criteria currently used in other Canadian jurisdictions such as the Canadian Council of the Ministers of the Environment (CCME), and Alberta's Tier 1 and Alberta's Tier 2 Guidelines.
- Regardless of the criteria used, it's possible the ministry may require additional remediation for a spill or incident.
4. Required notifications and reports
The notification and reporting required depends on the type and severity of the incident. Refer to Directive PNG014: Incident Reporting Requirements.
Immediate Verbal Notification
When immediate verbal notification of an incident is required:
- Refer to the Regional Field Office map to determine the Ministry's Field Office responsible for the area where the incident has occurred; you will be prompted for this information when you call the Emergency Support Line.
- Call 1-844-764-3637, the Emergency Support Line.
Initial Incident Notification
The operator or licensee of a well, facility, pipeline or flowline must report the event to the Ministry within five (5) working days of the incident's discovery:
- Refer to the Directive PNG014 to ensure you have the required information and documentation available.
- Log in to IRIS and complete the initial incident report process.
- Upon successful submission of the initial report a countdown calendar is initiated in IRIS. The operator or licensee has 90 days to complete the subsequent detailed incident report without penalty.
Detailed Incident Report
The operator or licensee of a well, facility, pipeline or flowline must submit a detailed incident report within 90 days of the initial incident notification to avoid penalty.
- Refer to Directive PNG014 to ensure you have the required information and documentation available.
- Log in to IRIS and complete the detailed incident report process.
Reclamation Report
When the initial incident notification indicated that a reclamation report is required, the operator or licensee of a well, facility, pipeline or flowline must submit the reclamation report within six (6) months of completing the remediation of the incident.
- Refer to Directive PNG014 to ensure you have the required information and documentation available.
- Log in to IRIS and complete the reclamation report information process.
Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) Surface Release Report
The operator or licence holder of a pipeline including flowline must report a non-critical HDD surface release, as defined in the Bulletin BT2019-008 (BT2019-008).
- Refer to the Bulletin BT2019-008 to ensure the release meets the criteria of non-critical surface release.
- Record release events using the HDD Surface Release Report Form, and email the form to pipelines@gov.sk.ca after the completion of HDD construction activities.
About Directive PNG014: Incident Reporting Requirements, Version 1.0
Directive PNG014, version 1.0, sets out the ministry's requirements for regulating the reporting of spills and other incidents related to wells, facilities, flowlines and pipelines. It provides:
- A list of what constitutes a reportable incident
- Details of when and how an incident is to be reported; and
- Consequences of non-compliance with these requirements.
If you have any questions or concerns about draft Directive PNG014, contact the ER Service Desk at 1-855-219-9373 or ER.Servicedesk@gov.sk.ca.
5. Information on incidents reported in Saskatchewan
The PNG Digitized Spill Report Directory provides historical incident documents up to November 4, 2015.
For incidents that occurred since November 4, 2015, see The Saskatchewan Upstream Oil and Gas IRIS Incident Report. If further information is required on a specific incident, contact the ER Service Desk at 1-855-219-9373 or ER.Servicedesk@gov.sk.ca. Please note overlaps occurs between the PNG Digitized Spill Report Directory and the Saskatchewan Upstream Oil and Gas IRIS Incident Report for incidents reported in the time period from 1985 to November 4, 2015.
IRIS users with the appropriate security permissions from their Business Associate's IRIS Security Administrator can also access their company's incident reports in the system, as well as those incidents reported by other industry members.