Although oil and gas activity is prevalent in Western Canada, many individuals who live or own land near drilling sites or gas plants do not have first-hand knowledge of the energy industry and its practices.
To help remedy this information gap and improve relationships with its neighbours, Petro-Canada commissioned a series of focus groups in rural Alberta and British Columbia in 1998. Its purpose was to gain a better understanding of what local residents wanted to know about the company's upstream operations.
These findings helped shaped Petro-Canada's Operating in Your Neighbourhood program, which is intended to provide all of Petro-Canada's drilling and gas plant neighbours with easy-to-understand information about its activities and environment, health and safety precautions.
The program was refined and expanded in 2000 and now includes a detailed brochure, a supporting video that takes a step-by-step approach to the drilling process and site-specific fact sheets explaining the air, water and soil monitoring and safety systems in place, as well as details concerning the emergency response plans that support each facility or drilling site.
The program also includes Petro-Canada's commitment to personally visit every immediate neighbour of its operations at least once in every 12 - to 18-month period. These visits update neighbours on new developments and answer any questions they may have.