The deadly fire that swept across the Wainwright, Alta., military base has renewed a months-long regulatory battle between the provincial energy regulator and an oil and gas company.
Military officials have said there is no evidence that energy infrastructure was involved in the grass fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright on Oct. 17, which killed four soldiers and injured dozens more.
But in the weeks since the tragedy, Calgary-based Sumerian Oil and Gas has been speaking out against the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) about recent enforcement issues that led to hundreds of Sumerian wells on the military base being seized days before the fire.
In a series of public statements shared on its website and with CBC News, company officials allege that the AER failed to ensure the wells were secured before the fire.
They say Sumerian staff were the first to alert the regulator that night about the risk the wells could pose as the flames spread. As of Tuesday, the company website appeared to have been taken offline.
Officials with the AER have not responded to questions about the status of Sumerian’s wells on or since the night of the training disaster. They also declined to comment on how the wells have been managed since Sumerian lost access and the assets were placed under the care of the Orphan Well Association (OWA) on Oct. 5.
‘New compliance issues’
In a statement to CBC News Friday, Lars DePauw, president of OWA, said the agency has secured Sumerian’s wells at CFB Wainwright.
DePauw did not answer questions about when that work was completed or whether it happened before or after the fire.
“All Sumerian wells on CFB Wainwright have been inspected and shut in,” the statement said. “We continue to work on the new compliance issues we have identified. The OWA was not involved in any emergency response activities during the recent fire.”
OWA previously told CBC News that the AER’s Oct. 5 order against Sumerian was due to “significant non-compliance issues.”
While there are operational oil and gas wells scattered across CFB Wainwright, military investigators have said there is no indication that the fire was caused by oil or natural gas infrastructure, or that a gas line was struck. In response to questions about Sumerian’s assets on the base, military officials said there is no new information to share and the investigations remain active.
Call for ministerial review, legal challenge
Sumerian officials assert that the AER has unfairly targeted its operations for months. They have pledged to launch a regulatory appeal and seek a court injunction in an attempt to regain operational control of their assets.
The company has also asked Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean to launch a ministerial review into the regulator’s conduct. Jean’s office has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
In a series of statements issued after the Wainwright fire, Sumerian said it lost custody of its wells on the base two weeks earlier and hasn’t had access since.
In the AER order on Oct. 5, all of Sumerian’s assets, including more than 300 well licences on CFB Wainwright, were placed under the care of the OWA.
The order followed a string of enforcement actions, unpaid regulatory fees and a pair of crude leaks that allegedly went unaddressed in Wainwright and Killam.
The order required the OWA to shut in the sites within 14 days, a timeline Sumerian officials had warned the regulator was impossible due to the complicated process required to access sites on an active military base.
“So far as Sumerian can determine, between Oct. 5 and Oct. 17 the OWA did not attend a Sumerian site on the range, shut in no well, and isolated no pipeline,” the company told CBC News in a statement.
Sumerian officials said they called the OWA emergency line the night of the fire to report that the company’s wells were “inside the fire area.”
“On the evening of Oct. 17, the OWA’s designated contact advised Sumerian that none of the Sumerian wells on the range had been shut in and that the OWA did not plan to attend the base until Oct. 27,” the company said in a statement posted to its website last week and emailed to CBC News.
Military officials have said the fire resulted from a training exercise, was initially reported on the base’s grenade-launcher range — a “permanent danger area” that base firefighters couldn’t enter — and quickly spread in strong winds.
Three separate investigations are underway, and, among other things, will look at the threat assessment of the fire.
In a statement to CBC News Wednesday, the AER declined to comment on Sumerian’s allegations and said it is unable to answer questions related to the Wainwright incident while it is under investigation.
Mandy Olsgard, a risk assessment specialist and former senior environmental toxicologist with the AER, was critical of Sumerian’s attempts to regain operational control.
The AER’s order followed well-documented issues that raise legitimate concerns about the adequacy of environmental management under Sumerian, she said.
Rather than invoking a tragedy of unconfirmed cause to undermine the regulator’s credibility, Sumerian should provide evidence that outstanding environmental protection obligations have been met, she said.
“They clearly were not managing their wells in a manner that was sufficient for the Alberta Energy Regulator and that’s why they no longer have control of them.”
Previous sanctions
Sumerian’s regulatory disputes date back to November 2025, when it acquired the assets of Cleo Energy Corp., which had been in receivership for more than a year while its operations racked up a series of enforcement orders.
The AER did not oppose the initial acquisition, but enforcement disputes continued to arise.
The regulator first ordered Sumerian to suspend operations in July, but the company challenged the order and was granted a temporary stay in the Court of King’s Bench.
When announcing the Oct. 5 order, the AER said it had authorized the OWA to suspend the wells and facilities out of concerns Sumerian “may not be able to provide reasonable care and measures” to protect public safety and the environment.
‘Licence loss as a last resort’
The company, however, claims it was not given enough time to fix years-old operational issues before the AER clamped down and seized its assets.
Sumerian asserts that the AER violated its own principles of “education first and proportionate enforcement,” punishing the operator for pre-existing conditions on unworkable timelines.
Sumerian claims the AER repeatedly miscalculated compliance and security obligations by attributing third-party or non-existent assets to Sumerian. Along with the company’s call for a ministerial review, Sumerian is also demanding a regulatory audit of their assets.
“The deficiencies pre-date the restructuring, and the AER knew it,” the company said in a public statement about its dealings with the regulator.
“The company’s position is that the enforcement rests on conditions that pre-date its ownership, contradicts the AER’s own documents, and runs against the AER’s published policy of proportionate enforcement with licence loss as a last resort.”
Oil assets ‘dotted’ across Alberta
Olsgard said the adequacy of Sumerian’s environmental management and its ability to meet regulatory obligations should be assessed on their own merits.
She said, however, the case is a reminder of the need for clear emergency management protocols for the thousands of abandoned and orphaned energy sites scattered across Alberta, and the dangers these operations, if left unsecured, could pose when seasonal wildfires spark.
“We are a petro state, and these are dotted all over our province,” she said. “And given the increasing intensity and magnitude of forest fires, this should be something our provincial government is looking into.”
