Inspections and audits are key verification activities to collect information through desktop documentation reviews, field observations, or both. Monitoring energy and mineral resource developments through inspections and audits allows us to collect information about resource development activities and licensees.
Our field inspectors and auditors ensure that companies follow our requirements, and that wells, production and processing facilities, mines, dams, quarries, and pipelines operate safely, protecting the environment and enabling responsible resource development to benefit all Albertans.
Monitoring resource development facilities and projects enforces the standards and conditions set out in legislation and approval conditions. We analyze the information collected through inspections and audits to identify emerging risks, inform our regulatory oversight, and enhance our regulatory requirements.
How We Choose Sites
Field inspectors and auditors currently use five verification selection approaches in planning inspection and audit programs for existing infrastructure (e.g., well sites) and the information needed for energy and mineral resource development activities, such as applications, notifications, reports, and plans. The five verification selection approaches are as follows:
- Assessment criteria verification – inspection or audit when information is received (e.g., a new well drilling notification) is assessed with predetermined assessment criteria that flag the information due to high risk or uncertainty.
- Random verification – a planned selection approach for inspections and audits that establishes for a statistically representative sample of a defined population of regulated activities (e.g., the population of all routinely approved pipeline licence applications in a given calendar year). Random verification allows us to increase compliance with regulations, educate stakeholders on the requirements/systems, ensure controls work as intended, and inform enhancements to verification programs (e.g., targeted verification, assessment criteria) or other regulatory interventions across the life cycle.
- Targeted verification – a planned selection approach that establishes the collection and verification of information based on a specific regulatory objective (e.g., known or emerging issues, concerns, or information needs). Targeted programs are designed to collect information necessary to verify specific requirements and evaluate compliance.
- Referral verification – conducted when we receive a request for an inspection or audit from an external agency (e.g., the Government of Alberta) or from a branch within the AER based on the need for specific information needed to make a decision.
- Judgemental verification – a selection approach for inspections and audits where our employees use their experience and expertise as a rationale for the need to collect information related to a specific regulatory problem. This approach enables us to respond to observed or perceived issues with existing infrastructure, activities, or information received where preplanned work, such as assessment criteria or random and targeted verification, does not.
What Happens after inspections and audits are completed?
We will assess the information collected from our inspections and audits to determine compliance, regardless of the inspection or audit approach selected. If we discover a company is not following the rules, requirements, and regulations, we will use one of our many enforcement tools. We may even suspend operations until the problem is corrected.
Beyond ensuring compliance and enforcement, we may use information collected through inspections and audits to inform broader operational decisions. For example, information collected may be aggregated and analyzed to identify emerging trends and patterns, inform the AER’s risk-informed approach, identify appropriate regulatory actions across the life cycle of resource development, and enhance our regulatory framework.
