July 2005 ISSUE
Resource Rights Electronic System
Gets Set for e-Bidding
A secure web-based process for posting petroleum and natural gas or oil sands rights by the Alberta Department of Energy was successfully launched March 30, under the name e-Postings. If you post lands in Alberta, you need an electronic transfer system account as well as access to posting requests.
Included in e-Postings is a query function, both map and text based, to provide you with information to make your posting decision. You can query land for available rights and use the result to post directly into the system.
As your company controls access to your electronic transfer account through a site administrator, you can be secure in knowing who is posting lands in your name.
Now that e-Postings is fully operational, the energy department is working on the third phase of its e-Tenure project. Watch for e-Bidding, which will add bidding for oil sands, and petroleum and natural gas parcels at the public offering to a secure web-based system.
A joint initiative of industry and the department, e-Bidding is set to launch June 28, 2006, and will be mandatory.
The system is being designed with the help of the e-Bidding Working Group, which includes representatives from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Land Adminis-tration, the Canadian Assoc-iation of Petroleum Landmen, the Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
Some processes such as the closing time of the sale ( noon), the date of the sale (every second Wednesday) and when you can begin to bid (from the publication date) will remain the same. However, other processes may change.
Changes to some of your current practices may be necessary under e-Bidding. For example, as you will have an option to batch your bids, you may define your bids as critical and routine. Routine bids could be batched and submitted sooner than the sale day. You may then wish to submit your critical bids only on the day of the sale.
If you submit bids for your company, it is important for you to stay informed about the progress of the system. Over the next 11 months you will be able to find information on the design process and key dates by reading the e-Tenure Times, found at www.energy.gov.ab.ca /2612.asp. Training on the system will take place during May and June 2006.