The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Jan. 18, edition that Alberta's oil and gas sector spent more than $1.2-billion on cleaning up wells in 2022, according to the Alberta Energy Regulator. The Globe's Emma Graney writes that about half of that, $696-million, was spent directly by companies that operate wells. The rest came from the Orphan Well Association, which cleans up sites that no longer have an owner, and a provincial site rehabilitation program funded by a billion-dollar federal government grant. The numbers were released Wednesday in the AER's 2022 Liability Management Performance Report. It is the first time the AER has published an analysis of how the conventional oil and gas sector is managing the closing and cleanup of its wells, pipelines and other facilities across the province. The idea of the report is to improve the transparency of the sector's massive portfolio of liabilities. It will also help develop performance baselines after an overhaul of the province's reclamation rules in 2022, including a new annual spending requirement for cleanup work. The AER set that requirement at $422-million for the first year of the program, which the industry exceeded by 65 per cent.