Over the next few years, the Saskatchewan government is targeting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.

The ministry is working on a plan to remove 4.5 million tonnes of methane gas due to venting and flaring by 2025.

“To us ... it just makes common sense,” said Saskatchewan Minister of Energy and Resources, Bronwyn Eyre. “We’ve got about 20 per cent of natural gas being wasted in Saskatchewan by flaring and venting by producers.”

Consultation was done by the province with members of the industry, which included Crescent Point Energy, Canadian Natural Resource Limited, Whitecap Resources, Inc. and Husky Energy, among others.

The province isn’t sure if this will meet the federal plan for reduction of greenhouse gases.

“We feel pretty confident that our plan will be accepted, and we certainly hope it will,” Eyre said. “It’s results-based and we think it will result is real and measurable emissions rather than theoretical presumed reductions based on models and assumptions, and it’s about flexibility.”

Companies can make investment decisions for all their production facilities, she said.

The consultation with the industry was extensive.

“They certainly are telling us they prefer our plan to the federal plan,” Eyre said of industry. “We feel that has, we hope, traction as well, and certainly it should mean something when members of the sector are on board.”

Part of the government’s plan is to invest in expanding the infrastructure and introduce an expanded oil and gas processing investment incentive and expanded Saskatchewan innovation incentive, which would be a royalty credit system within the oil and gas industry

“We feel it’s necessary to have something infrastructurally incentivizing that goes hand in hand with these goals,” Eyre said.