Merci, Monsieur le President. In February 2015, Strategic Oil and Gas Ltd. stopped production in the Cameron Hills field in the Northwest Territories. It bought the operations from Paramount Resources a couple of years before that, and GNWT approved the assignment of regulatory approvals to the new owner. The field consists of 50 wells, winter roads, summer all-terrain vehicle trails, a gas and oil gathering system, a central battery, temporary and permanent camps, airstrips, borrow pits, and bridges. A class A water licence and a type A land use permit cover its activities in the NWT.
It also holds an operations authorization from the Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations, 15 production licences, and 11 significant discovery licences in the Northwest Territories.
Following some research, it looks like there has never been an approved closure and reclamation plan for Cameron Hills. Three different versions of a closure and reclamation plan have been submitted, and all have been rejected as inadequate. More recently, a workshop was held in Hay River in February 2019 on closure of the field and a new plan is due tomorrow, August 21st.
Trading was halted in Strategic Oil and Gas in April 2019 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and some directors have resigned. Strategic Oil and Gas is now in creditor protection with KPMG, a large international accounting and audit firm, as the court-appointed monitor.
On May 9, 2019, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench granted a revised stay of proceeding until September 30, 2019. Further, the court approved a process to begin the sale of its assets.
In June I asked a series of written questions on the status of Strategic Oil and Gas holdings in the NWT, its liabilities, and what our government is doing to protect our interests. I found out that only about $3 million is held in financial security and that there did not appear to be any estimate of its liabilities.
On the KPMG website, there is a document showing a list of unsecured creditors, including one from the NWT and an estimate of $12.375 million for the end-of-life obligations from OROGO, although the executive director tells me they had no input into this figure. This would leave a shortfall of over $9 million for environmental liabilities from a company that is in creditor protection. Needless to say, I will have questions for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on what our government is doing to protect taxpayers and the environment. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.