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“It’s companies in very difficult times making very difficult decisions,” said Brad Herald, a vice-president at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “It’s not an issue of them sitting on the money and not releasing it.

“I would say in most instances, they are really struggling to keep their lights on, and they’re falling behind on their obligations.”

Problems faced by landowners appear to be worsening. Rising numbers of farmers and ranchers are no longer receiving annual cheques from resource companies compensating them for operating wells on their land.

“It’s pretty much a disaster,” said Patricia Walker, president of My Landman Group, a company that helps landowners deal with industry. She had 40 new applications from landowners seeking compensation for lapsed rents which she planned to mail later Thursday.

“There’s just more and more of this going on.”

So far this year, the Surface Rights Board has received 1,500 applications from landowners seeking payment, nearly double the record 760 requests it handled in all of 2015.

Officials with the board believe they are on track to receive upwards of 2,500 applications totalling $5 million or more in overdue payments by the end of the year. The bleak outlook far outstrips previous forecasts and records.

Once it approves applications, the board sends the bill over to the province to pay it, but the government often struggles to recoup the costs from industry. In 2015 alone, the Alberta government paid landowners $1.7 million in overdue rents, but it recovered just $121,500 in all of the past seven years.