Liability Management Rating and Reporting

We work collaboratively with government and companies to develop and implement liability management programs for all energy sectors, which help to protect Albertans from significant potential environmental issues and costs associated with the closure of energy projects.

We use a liability management rating (LMR) to help us assess a company’s ability to address its abandonment, remediation, and reclamation obligations. The LMR is calculated as a ratio of a company’s deemed assets (production) to its deemed liabilities (abandonment and reclamation costs). The LMR is used to assess liability in three of our liability management programs:

• Licensee Liability Rating Program – described in Directive 006: Licensee Liability Rating (LLR) Program and Licence Transfer Process
• Large Facility Liability Management Program – described in Directive 024: Large Facility Liability Management Program
• Oilfield Waste Liability Program – described in Directive 075: Oilfield Waste Liability (OWL) Program

What We Expect

We expect companies to maintain an LMR above 1.0; otherwise we require a security deposit to be made to cover abandonment, remediation, and reclamation costs if a company cannot meet its obligations. A company can manage or improve its LMR by

• reducing liability (by abandoning or reclaiming sites or selling less-productive assets), or
• increasing assets (by purchasing highly productive sites or improving production on existing sites).

Sharing Information

A company can view a full breakdown of its LMR through our Digital Data Submission (DDS) system.

We share security-adjusted LMRs and debts owed in our LMR reports below, and on our Debtor Registry, which is updated monthly.

Disclaimer: This information is provided without warranty of any kind, and, while it is believed to be accurate, the AER, comprising its agents, employees, and contractors, hereby disclaims any liability for losses or damages that might result or arise from the use of or reliance on the information provided on this site.

Contact Us

For questions about the LMR or our liability management programs, please contact our Customer Contact Centre or email @email.