Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act Application Repository Project

The National Energy Board is implementing a document management system for the review of applications for upstream oil and gas activities requiring authorization under the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act s. 5.(1)(b). Under this initiative, the Board will accept an electronic copy of an application thereby reducing the number of paper copies that applicants are required to file with the Board for approval. The new system will be implemented in several phases.

Phase One of this project is to implement an internal "NEB-only" system which will allow for the review of electronic application documents in an electronic work-flow environment. This phase is intended to establish the viability of the technology and methodology. In this phase, we will require applicants to submit one copy of each application and supporting documentation on paper, for legal reasons, and one copy in portable document format (PDF) on diskette or compact disk.

Future phases of this project envisage electronic filing of applications and phased-in electronic sharing of relevant portions of the applications and supporting documentation with other regulators and agencies as appropriate.

More specific information on this initiative will be provided at a mini-workshop in June We will provide further details and respond to any questions you may have at that time.

As a first step in implementing this project, all of the application forms for authorizations under the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act have been revised. These are now available on the NEB Web site (www.neb-one.gc.ca).

If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact:

Lori-Ann Sharp (lsharp@neb-one.gc.ca)
Data Coordinator
Exploration and Production
National Energy Board
444 Seventh Avenue SW
Calgary Alberta
T2P 0X8

Phone: 403-299-1994

Yours sincerely,

Terry Baker
Chief Conservation Officer