Liability Management Performance Report

November 2025

In July 2020, the Government of Alberta announced a liability management framework, and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) released new requirements through Directive 088 in December of 2021. This report tracks industry performance as it relates to liability management and the impact of the liability management requirements over time. This report provides an overview of industry performance in relation to liability management and the impact of requirements and programs implemented to reduce oil and gas liability over time.

The purpose of this report is to improve transparency about industry’s management of oil and gas liabilities with the implementation of the new liability management programs. The report also helps the AER develop closure work baselines that assess industry as a whole and individual licensees. This report will be updated annually, and additional data will be added as the liability management program expands.

2024 Highlights:

  • The industry-wide closure spend requirement remained unchanged at $700 million.
  • The orphan fund levy remained unchanged at $135 million.
  • Over $1 billion was spent on closure. This comprised the licensees’ reported eligible spend of $900 million, surpassing the requirement by 28%, and the industry-funded Orphan Well Association (OWA) spend of $119 million.
  • 85% of licensees were compliant with their 2024 mandatory closure spend. There are 69 noncompliant, active licensees with $6.4 million in outstanding quotas, which is less than 1% of the industry-wide closure spend requirement.
  • Industry continues to work on the backlog of inactive infrastructure. Between 2022 and 2024, the inactive well count decreased from 91 000 to 78 000 (14% decrease).

Additional Information