Alberta Crown Land Data Currency Re-established

In January 2011, Alberta Energy changed its Land data file format, content and delivery mechanisms. The datasets affected include:

• Alberta Crown Mineral Land (includes Land Sale Notices)
• Alberta Land Unit Agreements (only available via the IHS Information Hub™)
• Alberta Encumbrances
• Alberta Well Holding and Spacing

Our customers come first, meaning we only deliver content that has passed our stringent data quality processes for translating source data to critical information serving industry requirements. Due to challenges with resolving issues around data inconsistencies, complex relationships between datasets needing to be continually supported and omissions encountered in the new delivery, IHS made the difficult decision to freeze (keep static) a majority of Alberta Crown Land information until key issues had been resolved and signed off on by our quality assurance experts.

It is important to note that this freeze did NOT affect Alberta Land Sale Notices or Results as IHS was able to process and verify this information through currently established processes.

We apologize for any inconvenience our solution presented to you and have appreciated your patience throughout this timeframe.

Our team worked closely with Alberta Energy representatives to diagnose and correct a number of data challenges and to ensure the information served industry requirements. Issues that were identified throughout the process and our recommendations to correct those issues mean that our Canadian Land experts' detailed work benefited our entire industry. We are extremely proud of our Land team members and their expertise. The value they offer doesn't just involve contributing to data quality projects at IHS, but also understanding the implications that affect the technical and business decisions of the entire user community.

All Alberta Crown Land information is current on our Information Hub effective April 26, 2011. Realizing that those customers who receive only monthly releases of IHS AccuMap® would not benefit from this current Alberta Crown Land until mid-May, we offered a special AccuMap Land data release on April 29. Land Text, which is completely manually entered and adjusted, has been released in stages and has been 100 percent current since May 9.

Again, we thank you for your patience throughout this process and we look forward to continuing to provide you with quality critical information.

Any questions or concerns can be forwarded to IHS Customer Care via email or by phone at 403 770-4500.

Steven Marinoske is director of Well and Land critical information at IHS.