Land access near heavy oil sites

[fishinmatt]

Does anyone have any information concerning the legalities of accessing land surrounding SAGD operations? As many of you know some of the producers set up security gates well out side of their production areas and do not give access to the general public even though there are thousands of acres of land no where near their production facilities. I assume that the only surface leases that they have are plant, production pads etc., and possibly roads but the surrounding areas are crown land. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Everyone at the oil companies will tell you they own the land which I would hope everyone know is not true but I am unsure of the exact legalities. I plan on contacting the ministry as well as the AER in hopes of getting some clear information.
Matt

[woods_walker]

You are correct that they have the rights to the lease, the pads, the site and the roads and that the surrounding area is crown land. They can't keep you from being on the crown land. How you access it, they can control if you are trying to use their road through the facility. I did a lot of work on crown land around all of these sites and even with road use agreements and permission and site contacts, the security guys couldn't understand that you weren't working on their site but because they had taken over a road or cut off the previous access to your crown land worksite you were travelling through the site. A few phone calls would usually solve this and some sites required security to escort you across the site (never once did I require an escort back through for some reason). If you can travel seismic lines to get around the site or use a different route than you would be fine too. Lots of times I just took a different route to the 'backside' of the site with my quad using seismic lines as it was quicker than dealing with the security guys and tracking down your contact who was always off shift or changed jobs or no one could get a hold of them. I would however recommend avoid hunting right up by these sites as there are a lot of workers out and about and some of them are in the bush and also the SAGD sites aren't always cleared for the entire MSL so you could be trespassing especially in their expansion phases. Send me a PM and maybe I could give you a pointer to access around a particular site. I moved from that area and don't plan on going back to hunt.

[rugatika]

I believe the way it works is they get permission to build roads etc into their sites on the condition that they control the traffic in and out on the roads. Basically, if you want to access that land, you have to do it the way it was done before the oil roads went in. Foot.

I'm sure some companies put up gates to save their roads from yahoos that want to see how deep they can rut up a road with their mudders, but it sounds like the SAGD areas are fairly well environmentally regulated.

[roughneckin]

Originally Posted by rugatika

I believe the way it works is they get permission to build roads etc into their sites on the condition that they control the traffic in and out on the roads. Basically, if you want to access that land, you have to do it the way it was done before the oil roads went in. Foot.

I'm sure some companies put up gates to save their roads from yahoos that want to see how deep they can rut up a road with their mudders, but it sounds like the SAGD areas are fairly well environmentally regulated.

X2. If they build the road under certain conditions and approvals it is their duty to control access into said site. If they don't they can get shut down. To use the road you have to get onto their approved vendor or access list, such as folks who work for them or trappers in the area usually have an agreement.