Energy companies must use control wells to measure the pressure, flow, productivity, and gas content of coalbed methane and shale gas wells.
Under the Oil and Gas Conservation Rules, companies producing gas from coalbed methane and shale gas wells must meet our strict measurement requirements. Suspended control wells cannot be used to collect data for wells starting new production.
Find answers to commonly asked questions about our control well requirements.
Our Detailed Requirements
- Directive 040 Pressure and Deliverability Testing Oil and Gas Wells
- Directive 044 Requirements for Surveillance, Sampling, and Analysis of Water Production in Hydrocarbon Wells Completed Above the Base of Groundwater Protection
- Directive 062 Coalbed Methane Control Well Requirements and Related Matters
- Subsurface Orders List of subsurface orders
Supporting Documents
- Bulletin 2010-20 Alternative Data Collection Option to Shale Gas Control Well Requirements
- Manuals Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) manuals are a category that are used for informational purposes only. Manuals can be targeted to external stakeholders (which can contain how-to guides or guidelines on programs or processes, or they can contain supplemental information).
Compliance and Enforcement
We conduct regular inspections and audits to make sure that companies are following our requirements. If we find that a company isn’t complying, we’ll take the appropriate compliance and enforcement actions and share our findings on the Compliance Dashboard.
Voluntary Self-Disclosure of a Noncompliance
Companies preparing to self-disclose control well noncompliances must fill out one of the following:
Further information can be found in section 3 of Manual 013.
Control Well Forms
Companies must fill out and submit the data forms provided on our control well information page.