On-site inspections by BCER Compliance and Enforcement Officers are the primary means through which field-based regulatory compliance is evaluated. Some inspections are triggered by events or complaints (for example, spills or noise complaints); however, most inspections are pre-planned using a risk and data informed model intended to optimize resource allocation, be responsive to emerging issues and trends, utilize the expertise and knowledge of BCER field staff and timing (see our Annual Compliance Plan reports). More information about our inspection processes and procedures can be found on our Compliance & Enforcement (for Energy Professionals) page.
Data and Risk-Informed: Planned inspections, based on site characteristics, observed compliance trends and associated risk.
Event-Driven: Inspections prompted by operational events at oil and gas sites (notice of construction, pressure test, Leave To Open notices, etc.).
Responsive: This stream includes inspections requested by a business area within the BCER or by an external party. It also provides responsiveness to specific stakeholder interests or concerns, and identification of potentially emergent compliance trends.
Officer Selected: These inspections are selected by officers based on an evaluation of inspection frequency, inspection coverage within an area, local knowledge and response to seasonal access into remote areas. As these inspections are often conducted alongside other planned inspections, they positively influence inspection efficiency by rounding out daily activities in a particular area.
Number of Field Inspections and Types of Inspected Activities
The bar chart below indicates the number of field inspections BCER Compliance and Enforcement Officers carry out each year. The pie-chart indicates which activities were inspected (cumulative over the last five years). More information about individual inspections is available in our inspections database.
Figure 1. (a) Number of field inspections each year (b) Types of activities inspected
Inspection-Level Compliance
The graph below breaks down the number of field inspections each year by (a) those that did not identify any non-compliances versus (b) those in which one or more non-compliances were identified.
Figure 2. Inspection-level compliance by year
Non-Compliances by Severity
The following graph displays the number of individual instances of non-compliance identified during the inspections, categorized by severity (note that a single field inspection typically involves examining various different features of a site, such that a single inspection could identify multiple non-compliances). Depending on the severity of the non-compliance (i.e., the level of risk to human safety or the environment), corrective action by the permit holder is required within 24 hours (high severity), or 14 days or 30 days (low severity).
Figure 3: Non-compliances by severity
Related pages
- How We Regulate --> Ensure Industry Compliance
- News & Publications --> Factsheets --> Compliance and Enforcement (pdf)
- Data & Reports --> Data Narratives --> Compliance Management: Verification
- Data & Reports --> Data Narratives --> Compliance Management: Enforcement
- Data & Reports --> Compliance & Enforcement
- Data & Reports --> Reports --> Compliance & Enforcement
- Energy Professionals --> Operations Documentation & Guidance --> Compliance & Enforcement