Schulich Study Challenges “Vulture Capital” Narrative in Alberta Oilpatch
A new study from the Schulich School of Business is challenging conventional thinking about so-called “vulture capital” in Canada’s oil and gas sector.
Published in the Journal of Business Ethics, the study, “Vultures, Vampires, and Necro-waste in the Oil and Gas Industry,” examines how distressed oil and gas assets in Alberta are acquired, managed and often abandoned.
Drawing on a decade of government well-license reports and data covering more than 600,000 wells, the researchers found that a small group of corporate actors has accumulated wealth by purchasing aging or inactive wells at low cost, extracting remaining value, and leaving behind significant environmental liabilities.
The authors argue these actors are not simply “vultures” cleaning up economic remains. Instead, they operate more like “corporate vampires” — extracting value while transferring environmental and financial costs onto communities, governments and future generations.
The study also identifies several “social accountability pressure points” that could help address these challenges, including greater transparency around ownership, stronger liability frameworks to hold original owners accountable for environmental cleanup, and regulatory reforms that better align financial incentives with long-term environmental responsibility.
The paper is co-authored by Schulich faculty members Jeff Everett, Dean Neu, Abu Shiraz Rahaman and Greg Saxton, alongside Schulich PhD researcher Minqi Liu and Kieran Taylor-Neu from the Alberta School of Business.
The authors note that meaningful change will require coordinated action from policymakers, regulators and industry stakeholders, with the goal of moving toward more sustainable outcomes.
