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The AER hasn’t validated the numbers referenced by the ALDP, said spokesperson Shawn Roth in an email.

“They are general estimates used to make a point to a specific audience and represent a scenario that is highly unlikely — a complete and immediate shutdown of the entire industry,” he said.

The data follows an ALDP report released in April, showing that cleaning up more than 300,000 oil and gas wells in Alberta could total up to $70 billion.

The AER calculated the liability estimate at $58.7 billion.

Boychuk said the estimates calculated by the ALDP are significantly more than those of company’s audited financial statements, showing that risk is being “masked.”

“When companies report their liabilities at discounted rates, without also reporting what it would cost to do the cleanup today, it makes them look — on paper — healthier than they are. But their numbers assume the companies have decades they may not actually have,” he said in a statement.

“That’s why we’re calling on the government to publicly release independently verified, undiscounted estimates of Alberta’s fossil fuel liabilities.”

Husky spokesman Mel Duvall said in an email Wednesday that the company uses industry accepted practices to calculate abandonment liabilities, which are audited externally every year.

At year-end 2018, obligations stood at $2.4 billion for the company, he said, with the majority of those costs related to assets in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The company doesn’t publicly release the numbers by province, he added.