David Yager has been studying and analyzing provincial and national energy policy since the introduction of the National Energy Program in 1980. Areas affecting the upstream oil and gas industry include federal policy, provincial policy, taxation, royalties, interest rates, exchange rates, commodity prices, regulations, market access and, most recently, environmental activism and the anti-fossil fuel movement.
As Chairman of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC), in 2009/2010 he was the driving force behind the creation of a major study on the size and impact of the oil service industry on the Canadian economy. This was updated in 2014.
He wrote a position paper for the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC, Service Rig Division)that helped shape a new royalty rate for reactivation of suspended oil wells in the 1991 conventional oil and gas royalty review. It was called the Suspended Well Activation Policy (SWAP).
Through MNP, he authored a study for PSAC on well abandonment and site reclamation in 2016 which the trade association used for educating provincial and federal governments about the complexity of the challenge and how regulators, governments and the oil services sector could cooperatively manage it. This work helped the federal government understand the industry sufficiently to introduce $1.7 billion in COVID-response employment stimulus in the spring of 2020 to sustain jobs for workers involved in legacy asset decommissioning and reclamation.
Other work included a comprehensive employment study for PSAC using three regional examples for the number of workers engaged in creation of extended reach horizontal wells completed using multistage hydraulic fracturing, and another on the impact of LNG exports on drilling and job creation in the natural and liquids producing regions of northwest Alberta and northeast BC.
David Yager is hired by boards, companies, and trade associations to provide an overview of the of Canada’s oil and gas industry including the key drivers of production, investment, and employment; past, present and future.
He has authored analysis and commentary position papers for PSAC (now Enserva), CAODC (now CAOEC) and CAGC (Canadian Association of Geophysical Contractors) which highlight the current state of the industry and the economic challenges facing the major oil service sectors.
Since January 1, 2023, his only policy research and advisory consulting client has been the Government of Alberta. The projects have included the Premier’s Advisory Council on Alberta’s Energy Future; the Premier’s Review of the Alberta Energy Regulator; and the creation and execution of Alberta’s Mature Asset Strategy. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the AER in April of 2024.