the government of Saskatchewan is hoping to strengthen and modernize its regulatory oversight of the oil and gas industry by introducing a new electronic pipeline registry.

The first system of its kind in Canada, the new system will function within the current Integrated Resource Information System (IRIS) and will issue and administer licenses for the oil, gas and mining sector entirely online, similar to how the Saskatchewan Land Titles Registry already operates.

The new act also serves to expand current regulatory oversight to roughly 80,000 flowlines over the next four years and promises a higher level of scrutiny at higher-risk locations such as waterways.

David Gowland, the Manager of Government and Stakeholder Relations at Crescent Point Energy, says that the government has worked tightly with industry consultation when making these changes.

"It modernizes the whole registration of pipeline and flowlines and that whole system and the end result of that is that we'll have much better data in terms of where these lines are located, their size and their content in terms of what is flowing and we'll really help in terms of any kind of emergency response or interaction with other people doing work underground."

He explains that previously in the old system, which he describes as "paper-based" many smaller flowlines were not being captured or recorded in the government's database. This new system means to correct that oversight, offering a much more detailed map of the province's oil network that can be useful for regulation, oversight and planning for a wide variety of purposes like running analytics or enforcement of compliance.

"So if you've got a highway construction project, they'll be able to check those areas to see if there's any flowlines or pipelines underground and we can work together and kind of facilitate that collaboration a bit better."

In the end, he says that going digital in the new system won't change how new pipelines are approved, but only the registration of existing pipelines, adding that in this day and age, it's just where the industry needs to be.