Under the BC Energy Regulator’s Comprehensive Liability Management Plan, a key focus is to speed up the rate at which inactive sites are returned to their pre-activity state. To achieve this, we are setting new timeline requirements to hold companies to account for timely cleanup. While many companies are actively restoring sites, the rate of restoration has not kept pace with development. Legislative changes enable the BCER to implement a Dormancy Regulation to address this, which sets hard timelines for restoration and imposes requirements for:

• Decommissioning
• Site Assessment
• Remediation
• Restoration

The Dormancy Regulation gives each site a prescribed timeline to complete restoration.

For more information, please see the Dormant Sites Manual.

List of All Dormant and Former Sites

For a list of dormant and former sites in B.C., please visit our Data Centre.

Former sites are more commonly referred to as sites that were “built but never drilled,” or sites that were “cancelled with surface disturbance.” A former site is defined in the regulation as a site where the well permit has been cancelled, declared spent, or expired.

Spatial Data

The BCER provides spatial data for all dormant and orphan sites including the contents of permit holder Annual Work Plans. The spatial data is provided as both shape files (to be utilized in an ArcGIS platform), as well as KML files (to be used in a Google Earth platform). If you have any questions about the spatial data please email dormantsites@bc-er.ca.

Dormant Sites Map

Click on the map below to launch in full view:

Permit Holder Site Dormancy Declaration

Section 3(1)(b) of the Dormancy & Shutdown Regulation gives permit holders the ability to provide written notice to the BCER that a well is dormant. Sites that are declared as dormant then follow the classification of dormant sites as per Section 4 of the Dormancy & Shutdown Regulation. If you are a permit holder wishing to declare one or more of your sites as dormant please fill out the Site Dormancy Declaration Form and email it to dormantsites@bc-er.ca.

Priority Sites

Dormant sites are classified by either the date that a site becomes dormant or whether the site is a priority site. Priority sites are subject to expedited timelines for closure activities.

The Priority Site Identification Process Map outlines the process that will be followed when requests are received for review and decision made by the Commissioner.

Priority site requests are site-specific and must be received on the Dormant Sites Priority Site Request Form.

Link to Geographic Datasets where you can find spatial files and view data inside web map applications.