Intricate has conducted dozens of Enhanced Production Audit Program reviews in Alberta, and it is apparent that needs vary depending on a company’s size, resources, business processes, and current measurement compliance.

What may be required for a large producer is usually not needed or necessary for a small producer.

What is EPAP?

Enhanced Production Audit Program encourages operators to improve their measurement and reporting processes to increase compliance with The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER.) This helps operators avoid high costs related to enforcement activities. EPAP is used for conventional oil, heavy oil, crude bitumen, and natural gas facilities.

The program is for operators who are designated as the “operator of record” on Petrinex for facilities reporting volumetric activity, and subject to AER measurement and reporting requirements.

The AER developed EPAP in 2010 and had producers begin to self-assess themselves and report the results. Similarly in Saskatchewan, the Ministry of Energy and Resources (MER) adopted the same program.

Implementing an Enhanced Production Audit Program:

With small and mid-sized companies EPAP programs, the audit normally occurs once per year with declaration and remediation recommendations from the EPAP assessment provider.

Typically, once the declaration has been signed off and filed, most of the remediation recommendations get neglected and forgotten over time. Eventually, the EPAP audit is back again and nothing has been remediated.

This can be an ongoing issue of never improving stagnation. Intricate’s low cost / high-value solution removes the annual guesswork of what the results will be and the uncomfortable conversations between EPAP owners and their senior management.

This solution builds a strong relationship between the company and the EPAP evaluator quarterly. The idea for this solution is to assess a company’s controls in a team effort. Usually, an auditor will request and receive the control data then determine mitigation levels. With this solution, the determination and prioritized goals will be conducted together. A better understanding will then be achieved by all stakeholders of what is required of them but also an added value of control performers personalizing and owning their part of the company’s EPAP program.

Once the remediation items have been determined, there will be a discussion on the remediation items during the quarterly meeting. When an action item has been completed, an assessment of the outcome will be reviewed by the group. If successful, this control will be marked as effective and therefore strengthens the associated theme.

With having the opportunity to continually improve the company’s EPAP program and reviewing progress quarterly, a proactive idea has been approved. As the program progresses, the meetings will require less time being spent on detailed documentation reviews by instead continually improving and creating efficiencies and core value to the company.

How an Enhanced Production Audit Program Strengthens Your Business:

With successful businesses, large or small, effective and efficient business processes is crucial to a company’s growth and bottom line. If a more practical approach is implemented within the EPAP program, then not only will the government’s requirements be met, but also greater business value will be achieved.

Intricate has an excellent understanding of EPAP and related business requirements. Intricate focuses on the sustainable and cost-effective establishment of EPAP implementation and consulting in order to ensure:

• Effective annual declarations
• Controls-based testing
• Remediation identification
• Continuous improvement opportunities
• EPAP compliance with both the AER (Alberta Energy Regulator) Directive 076 and ER (Saskatchewan Energy and Resources) PNG017

Read more: “Let’s Talk About MARP?”