EDMONTON – Alberta farms may be dotted with pump jacks, compressor stations, rigs and pipelines, but that doesn’t mean landowners know their rights when dealing with energy companies.
“The landowners are terribly misinformed,” said Jennifer Lutz, adviser with the Energy Resources Conservation Board, the provincial agency in charge of policing the oil and gas industry.
“Landowners tell us they have no rights and start to believe it,” Lutz told landowners during an information session at Farm Tech in Edmonton Jan. 29.
But landowners have rights and must make an effort to know them before allowing energy companies to drill a well or let a pipeline cross their land, she said.
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Lutz said recently she and her husband bought a combine, but it took four months of negotiations before they decided on the options.
Some landowners sign an energy contract in two days without understanding the long-term impact on their farm.
That well will be on the land long after their combine is gone from the farm, she said.
“Landowners need to take the time before agreeing to an energy company request,” she said.
With the increased number of oil and gas activity in the province, the potential for conflict has increased and the ERCB has stepped up its education components to help reduce conflicts. It recently increased the number of advisers to 16 from three to help farmers deal with energy companies.
“We want to get out and inform people of their rights,” she said.
Lutz said she’s taken ERCB staff to her Olds, Alta., farm to help them better understand farming and the impact of oil and gas activity on farms. ERCB employees have ridden on her combine during harvest to get an appreciation of the difficulties of driving around wellheads or over buried pipelines. Each time farmers are forced to slow down and gear down the combine to cross a buried pipeline they get a little angrier.
As a farmer, Lutz said she understands farmer frustrations, but she resents suggestions that the ERCB is in the industry’s back pocket.
“It really offends me when I’m told they can buy me,” she said. “We are the policemen of the oil and gas industry. We don’t let industry tell us what to do.”
The roughly 900 ERCB workers make about 18,000 energy company inspections each year. In 2006, the agency made 6,100 enforcement actions and shut down 91 companies.
Lutz said farmers must fully understand any oil or gas proposal that affects their land and must be given time to make an informed decision. While a land agency for an energy company may encourage a quick resolution, farmers have a right to hire experts to help them understand the contract and ask the oil company to pay for the advice.
“Don’t sign until you’re sure. Take time to go through it.”
Lutz said farmers must keep a written copy of all agreements. The ERCB can help farmers enforce an oil company promise, but only if it’s in writing and farmers have a copy.
She encouraged farmers to join surface rights groups and talk to other farmers about their negotiations.
Lutz said the ERCB website contains information, including detailed descriptions of the pipelines, wells and compressor stations on each quarter of land.
After the session, Harvey Hasiuk of Two Hills, Alta., stopped at the ERCB trade booth to look at the website.
He found that one of five pipelines crossing his land is changing from provincial oversight to federal, which could change his compensation.
“It’s an important part of Alberta, these pipelines, but they have to treat us fairly, that’s the least we can expect,” he said.
