Membership Charter

Purpose

The purpose of Western Canadian Spill Services Ltd. (WCSS) is to provide spill preparedness and response support services that meet regulatory requirements for licensees of wells and pipelines that are members in good standing of WCSS oil spill cooperatives in Alberta, NE British Columbia and Co-op 1 in Saskatchewan.

MEMBERSHIP

Membership is available to all upstream petroleum licensees in Alberta, NE British Columbia and in the Saskatchewan portion of Oil Spill Cooperative 1 for the following types of operations:

  • Licensed wells – including gas wells that produce > 2m3 liquid hydrocarbon/month

  • Licensed pipelines

MEMBERSHIP OBLIGATION

  • WCSS members are required to sign an Equipment Lease Agreement prior to utilizing WCSS spill equipment for training purposes and/or spill response activities. In the event that the member is unable to sign the agreement prior to dispatching the equipment to the site; that member will be held responsible (same conditions as WCSS Equipment Lease Agreement) for the equipment until such time as that member signs the Equipment Lease Agreement.

  • WCSS members must pay their annual membership fees based on a flat fee, well counts and kilometres of licensed pipelines.

WCSS members should:

  • Strive to be in compliance with regulatory requirements related to spill preparedness, including training requirements (i.e. attending annual Oil Spill Cooperative exercises).

  • Conduct a spill risk assessment for their operations and implement adequate risk control measures where required.
  • Maintain a copy of the WCSS Oil Spill Contingency Manual that is specific to each of the Oil Spill Cooperatives where that member operates; area updates are available on the WCSS website (www.wcss.ab.ca).
  • Familiarize themselves with oil spill control points in surface water downstream from potential uncontrolled release sites.
  • Identify local external spill response resources that may be required to supplement internal resources and those provided by WCSS.
  • Participate in Oil Spill Cooperative activities where possible.

NEW MEMBERSHIP PROCESSES

WCSS members and/or new companies that move into a new cooperative area throughout the year and would like to self-declare their involvement in that cooperative in that same year, should contact WCSS at info@wcss.ab.ca.

AMENDMENTS

Amendments to this charter must be approved by the WCSS Board of Directors.

DATE SUBMITTED

June 15, 2023

DATE APPROVAL

June 19, 2023

Jonathan Schindlbeck, WCSS Board Chair

Organizational Structure