Alberta Government Removes Expiry Date for Carbon Credit Protocol

Yesterday was an important day for methane reduction in Alberta. In addition to announcing a much-awaited federal equivalency announcement, the Provincial government released an update of the Quantification Protocol for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from Pneumatic Device – the document which outlines the rules for generating carbon credits from pneumatics.

The most notable change is the removal of the protocol’s end date. According to the release “Removing the end date clarifies the incentive for cost-effective verifiable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that are not otherwise directly priced or required by law.”

The protocol previously had an expiry date of January 1, 2023. That meant that carbon credits from pneumatic retrofit projects would come to an end on the same day that Directive 60 regulations require all well sites to have been retrofitted to low bleed devices.

The crediting period for high-to-low bleed conversion projects will still end on this day. However, projects which exceed regulatory requirements, like instrument gas to instrument air (IGIA) conversions, now qualify for an 8-year crediting period.

In other words, retrofitting well sites to instrument air just became a money-making proposition.

Westgen estimates that carbon credits will more than pay off the cost of an instrument air retrofit for almost all multi-well pads, including those that have already been converted to low bleed. Payouts on larger multi-well pads could be achieved in less than one year.