With the price of oil remaining low — it hit its lowest point in 11 years last week — the year ahead is not going to be an easy one for the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group (SPOG), said its executive director.
However, SPOG has a “huge opportunity” to demonstrate the value it has to offer its membership, said Tracey McCrimmon.
The group plans to continue efforts to build and maintain relationships with its partners, she said.
Even with the drop in activity as oil and gas companies scale back their operations, there remains a lot of stress on the land. The pressure on the land will increase as the level of activity eventually starts to return to normal levels, which could take some time as the low cost per barrel does not seem poised to jump back up any time soon, she said.
SPOG is a collection of oil and gas companies operating in the Sundre area.
SPOG is all about establishing and maintaining relationships between industry — including all users of land such as forestry and agriculture — and landowners, said McCrimmon, who lives south of Sundre.
“We're the buffer that keeps the lines of communications open between the stakeholders,” she said.
Issues come and go, but as they come up, SPOG has to be prepared to deal with them, which can be challenging if the group gets rusty because the oil and gas industry has been slow, she said.
SPOG has definitely seen some impacts from the downturn in the oil and gas industry, but does not yet fully understand what some of those impacts will be this year.
Although no companies had pulled out of being members when she spoke with the Gazette last week, McCrimmon said SPOG was still waiting for membership renewals and that some partners had requested a fee freeze.
“What we're going to do — what we have to continually do — is demonstrate value,” she said.
SPOG must meet with its partners to find out how to provide and add value to the bottom line, she said.
Like anyone involved in the oil and gas industry, McCrimmon said she wished there was a crystal ball to forecast the return of higher prices. But it is anticipated that 2016 will be similar to 2015, she said.
“We have not been given any indication that we're going to see any bright shining stars any time soon,” she said.
A lower level of activity in the oilpatch means there has not been as much of the mitigation and mediation work that SPOG is accustomed to doing, she said.
“There's just no new activity in the field,” she said.
As for Alberta's new NDP government and its proposed carbon tax, McCrimmon said that wouldn't particularly impact SPOG.
“I don't want to speak on behalf of our stakeholders — we're not an industry group,” she said.
SPOG doesn't own assets or buy and sell goods. A carbon tax would not have the same impact on the group as it would companies in the industry, she said.
“I don't know how that's going to play out,” she said about the carbon tax.
In terms of any new environmental regulations tabled by the NDP, such developments would have an impact on SPOG, which will have to stay on top of any changes to help its partners work in compliance with the rules, she said.
"We're the buffer that keeps the lines of communications open between the stakeholders."Tracey McCrimmonSPOG executive director
