Directly Affected Persons Process

Guidance Notes for Applicants – Applications for Declaration of Significant Discovery and Commercial Discovery – January 1997 [PDF 641 KB] (new version under development)

Guidance Notes (Revised) for Applicants for Significant Discovery and Commercial Discovery – Revised Section 4 – 17 November 2003 (new version under development)

File 9170-A000-4
17 November 2003

To: Companies operating on National Energy Board regulated frontier lands, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Natural Resources Canada

Please find enclosed a copy of the revised section 4 of the Guidance Notes for Applicants – Applications for Declaration of Significant Discovery and Commercial Discovery. These revisions have been approved by the Board and come into effect as of the date of this letter.

These revisions establish a new process for the Board's determination of Directly Affected Persons (DAP) pursuant to section 28.2(2) of the National Energy Board Act, and are the result of consultations between Board staff, industry and government representatives, which took place in May and June of 2003.

In summary, the new process is as follows:

  1. Upon receipt of an application for a Significant or Commercial Discovery Declaration (SDD/CDD), the Board will give notice of the application by way of a Notice of Application (Notice) placed on the Board's Web site. The Notice will include the name of the applicant, the relevant well number, the relevant Exploration or Significant Discovery Licence number, and a description of the applied-for lands.
  2. Persons who consider that they may be directly affected by the Board's decision on the application may submit to the Board and the Applicant, the nature of the information or evidence upon which that person relies to support their position that their interest may be directly affected and which could assist the Board in making its technical determination of the Significant or Commercial Discovery.
  3. The Applicant will have an opportunity to provide a response and the potential DAP will have an opportunity to reply, within specified times.
  4. The Board will then determine whether the person is a DAP and will advise the potential DAP and the applicant of that determination.

The primary objective of this process is to assist the Board in reaching a fair and objective determination of DAP.

In the Board's view, the process strikes an appropriate balance among the interests of, providing notice to potential DAP, transparency of process and maintaining privilege over information filed in respect of SDD and CDD applications.

Please note that the new process will not apply to applications filed with the Board prior to the date of this letter.

Information regarding the changes to the DAP process can be found at www.neb-one.gc.ca.

Yours truly,

for
Michel L. Mantha Secretary

Attachment

Appendix A – Sample Notice

Notice to Potential Directly Affected Person(s)

The Board has received an application for a Significant Discovery Declaration (or Commercial Discovery Declaration) dated (date) pursuant to section 28 (or section 35) of the Canada Petroleum Resources Act (CPRA) from [the applicant] in respect of Well #, EL/SDL # and the following applied-for lands:

To assist the Board in determining who should be considered to be a directly affected person (DAP) for the purposes of the above application, this notice is provided to seek your views and submissions on whether you should be considered to be a DAP. Any submission that you may file should clearly outline the nature of the information or evidence upon which you would rely to support your position that your interests may be directly affected and which could assist the Board in making its technical determination of the areal extent of the applied-for Significant or Commercial Discovery.

The Board requests that any submissions in this regard (DAP submissions) be filed with the Board and served on the applicant at the addresses noted below by (date).

National Energy Board The Secretary NEB File No. xxxxx 517 Tenth Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta  T2R 0A8
Fax: 403-292-5503 Fax (toll free): 1-877-288-8803

(Applicant's address and fax)

The applicant will then have until (date), to file any comments on the DAP submissions with the Board and serve them upon you. You will then have until (date), to file your response to the applicant's comments with the Board and serve it on the applicant.

In accordance with section 28.2 of the National Energy Board Act (Act), once the Board has examined and considered the application and at least thirty days before making a decision on the application, the Board will give written notice of its intention to make a decision to any person the Board considers to be directly affected by the Board's decision.

If you have any questions or if you require additional information, please contact (Board counsel) (email) at (telephone number) or call toll free at 1-800-899-1265.

Date modified: