The purpose of this study was to compare Alberta, Canada with other locations around the world in terms of their environmental policies, laws and regulatory systems. Other locations that were compared with Alberta included states and countries in North America (USA North Dakota and USA Gulf of Mexico), South America (Brazil), Australia (Queensland), Asia-Pacific (Malaysia), Middle East (Oman), Africa (Ghana) and Europe (United Kingdom and Norway).
The study was intended to examine and compare environmental policies, laws and regulatory systems as of December 2013; and not intended to evaluate “performance” or “effectiveness” of the governments. In particular, the survey was meant to evaluate the systems, processes and controls that exist within the evaluated jurisdictions and not how effectively and efficiently the jurisdictions are operating. Also, the study should not be seen as a direct comparative analysis, as cultures, governance models and maturity of governments are highly variable. In order to be fair in the comparison, countries were chosen that might be most similar to Alberta (at least one from each global region) based upon their recent levels of oil and gas activity, and the relative maturity and comparative openness (for their region) of their government.
In other words, are they as mature, open and active as Alberta? The study compared the environmental laws and government processes with respect to stringency (How comprehensive are the environmental laws?), transparency (How easily can the public get information?), and compliance (Which country has rules to ensure compliance?). Stringency, transparency and compliance were studied by looking at three stages in the life cycle of a major oil and gas project: approval of the project, construction and operations, and closure or decommissioning.
The review of 10 jurisdictions, representing seven major continental regions across the world, revealed that Alberta, Canada; Queensland, Australia; and the United States, Gulf Coast were consistently leading in a comparison of existing environmental policies, laws and regulatory systems. We fully expect that some countries and jurisdictions that were not compared would also be top performers in environmental regulation. The intent of this survey was to compare Alberta Canada in a fair manner with nine other countries/regions from every part of the oil and gas producing world.
WorleyParsons – 2014.
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