Natural gas producers in survival mode
The Financial Post – May 18, 2012
Natural gas companies are getting antsy. Sure, they can see the long-term potential of their industry, but first they need to get past natural gas prices that have hit rock bottom. Read more…
Canada pledges oil and gas pollution rules by 2013
The Financial Post- May 18, 2012
Facing questions about its upcoming withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol and “gaps” in its existing policies, Canada told international climate change talks in Germany Thursday that it planned to crack down on oil and gas pollution through draft regulations by next year. Read more…
Imperial weighs sale, conversion of Dartmouth refinery
The Globe and Mail – May 17, 2012
Oil companies are pulling back from refining. Airlines are getting in. Imperial Oil Ltd. put a “for sale” sign on its Nova Scotia plant Thursday, continuing an industry restructuring of the highly competitive North American refining industry. Read more…
Alberta admits it likely missed its greenhouse gas reduction targets
Calgary Herald – May 17, 2012
The Alberta government acknowledges it likely missed its 2010 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal and is now revamping the province’s overall climate-change strategy to meet future targets. Read more…
Redford fumbles the oil sands file
The Globe and Mail – May 17, 2012
When Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives defeated the upstart Wildrose Party in the province’s recent election, there was a shuddering relief in the environmental community. Read more…
Enbridge generates surprising social spike following AGM and anti-pipeline protest
Financial Post – May 16, 2012
Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway Pipeline project is no stranger to publicity, especially on social media networks like Twitter and Facebook. That is why it is no surprise that following their Annual General Meeting (AGM) and ongoing public protests against a proposed pipeline, Enbridge saw a spike in social media mentions. Read more…
Enbridge starts historic flow on Seaway oil pipeline
Calgary Herald – May 17, 2012
Four global energy firms led by Shell Canada say they are going to develop a 12 million-tonnes-a-year liquefied natural gas plant at Kitimat, the largest by far of four LNG proposals for the B.C. Coast. Read more…
Mulcair’s oil-sands musing risks halting NDP momentum
The Globe and Mail – May 17, 2012
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair’s thoughts about whether Alberta’s oil sands are causing a “Dutch disease” for the Canadian economy have touched off a lively debate about his political strategy. Read more…
Imperial Oil eyes selling Nova Scotia refinery
The Globe and Mail – May 17, 2012
Imperial Oil Ltd. is hanging a “for sale” sign on its 95-year-old refinery in Dartmouth, N.S., but would consider converting it to an import terminal, the company said Thursday. Read more…
Reviving Arctic oil rush, Ottawa to auction rights in massive area
The Globe and Mail – May 17, 2012
Ottawa has placed 905,000 hectares of the northern offshore up for bids, clearing the way for energy companies to snap up exploration rights for an area half the size of Lake Ontario. The scale of the offer indicates eagerness in the oil patch to drill for new finds in Canada’s northern waters less than two years after such plans were put on hold following the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico and a major Arctic drilling safety review. Read more…
Huge finds make East Africa the next big gas source
Financial Post – May 16, 2012
Western companies announced finds of huge additional quantities of gas off the coast of Mozambique and Tanzania, cementing the future of East Africa as a major new supplier exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to energy-hungry Asia. Read more…
Redford tweet labels NDP leader Mulcair as ‘divisive, ill-informed’
Calgary Herald – May 16, 2012
As a new study throws cold water on the notion that Canada is suffering a bad case of “Dutch disease,” Premier Alison Redford is taking new aim at NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair over the issue.Read more…
Will Seaway reversal narrow oil price discounts?
Financial Post – May 16, 2012
Just ahead of the Seaway oil pipeline restarting in reverse to clear a bottleneck of crude in the U.S. Midwest, Wall Street analysts have rarely been more divided over the outlook for one of the hottest oil market bets in years triggered by the glut. Read more…
Shell, Asian energy giants to build largest LNG plant in B.C.
The Vancouver Sun – May 15, 2012
Four global energy firms led by Shell Canada say they are going to develop a 12 million-tonnes-a-year liquefied natural gas plant at Kitimat, the largest by far of four LNG proposals for the B.C. Coast. Read more…
Why the Internet is zapping U.S. demand for our oil
The Globe and Mail – May 15, 2012
It’s like a law of energy that has been embedded in the psyche of every oilman since the Model T made its debut a century ago: Car-crazy Americans will keep driving more every year, and so will use more and more gasoline. Over the decades, this principle has led North American energy companies to pump ever-larger quantities of oil into continental pipelines, with little worry about the habits of the drivers buying the stuff at the other end. Read more…
Baird admits Tories cut funding to NRTEE scientists to silence opinions
Calgary Herald – May 15, 2012
If the CBC ever wanted to a blueprint of its future or the NEB considered for even a moment about rejecting the Northern Gateway pipeline, they might want to listen to how Stephen Harper’s always blunt Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird explained why the budget was eliminated for the National Roundtable on Energy and the Environment. Read more…
Attack of the zombie refineries
The Globe and Mail – May 14, 2012
The process of creative destruction sweeping the oil refinery industry has gone from top gear into reverse. Over the past year, refiners in the Atlantic basin from ConocoPhillips in the U.S. to Petroplus in Europe shut down plants, removing 1.6 million barrels of capacity at the peak in January. The closures triggered a recovery in the refining margin between crude oil and oil products, known as crack spreads, a favourite market for hedge funds. Read more…
Google-backed US$5B wind power line clears hurdle
Financial Post – May 14, 2012
A planned US$5-billion transmission line to send power from wind farms off the East Coast cleared a hurdle, allowing the Google Inc-backed project to move to the next step in the approval process, U.S. officials said. Read more…
Update: Canadian Natural Resources facing charges for failing to report poisonous gas release
Calgary Herald – May 14, 2012
Provincial regulators have charged Canadian Natural Resources Limited with failing to immediately report a hydrogen sulphide release from the company’s Horizon bitumen upgrader two years ago. Read more…
Oil theft costs Shell 43,000 barrels a day in Nigeria
The Vancouver Sun – May 14, 2012
Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigeria joint venture is losing 43,000 barrels a day (bpd) of crude oil to theft, while deliberate damage to pipelines accounted for more than three quarters of oil spilt last year, the oil major said. Read more…
Oil losses extend slump
Financial Post – May 14, 2012
Oil prices fell on Monday as Greece’s inability to form a government and worries about a slowing Chinese economy fed concern about the outlook for petroleum demand. The price slump extended this month’s slump for oil. In the two weeks ended Friday, Brent crude was down 6.2 percent and U.S. crude was off 8.4 percent. Read more…
Insurers struggle pricing risks of fracking
The Vancouver Sun – May 14, 2012
From water worries to well blowouts, the inherent risks of oil and gas extraction are often played down by those in the business. But another group of profit-seekers has every reason to keep a close eye on dangers for drillers: their insurers. Read more….
Researcher questions impartiality of industry-backed oilsands education program
Calgary Herald – May 14, 2012
An industry-funded program that offers high school teachers a six-day trip to Fort McMurray to “experience Alberta’s oilsands” is being expanded across the country. Read more…
Australia says shale could double its gas resources
Financial Post – May 14, 2012
Australia, the world’s fourth-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), could have enough shale gas resources to double its gas resource base and expand its growing export industry, a government report said on Monday. Read more…
Canada may seek to silence some foes of Enbridge pipeline
Financial Post – May 11, 2012
Some opponents of the proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline to Canada’s Pacific Coast may not get a chance to be heard as scheduled by the regulatory panel looking at the plan because of federal government moves to streamline the country’s environmental review process. Read more…
Seaway pipeline reversal may help ease Canada’s oil pain
Financial Post – May 11, 2012
Canada’s oil price disadvantage, estimated to deprive the country of as much as $50-million a day, is about to ease with the reversal of an old pipeline in the Southern United States. Read more…
Canada needs to speed up LNG development: E& Y
Financial Post – May 10,2012
Canada desperately needs to speed up the development of its liquefied natural gas industry or risk falling behind in the rush to supply international markets, Ernst & Young warns in a report released Thursday. Read more…
China moving up Canada’s energy value chain
The Globe and Mail – May 10, 2012
The billions of dollars Asian energy firms have invested in Canada in recent years have flowed almost exclusively into oil and gas fields, the raw reserves of the energy patch. Read more…
Canada must invest $50 billion to stay in LNG race: report
Vancouver Sun – May 10,2012
Canada must speed development of liquefied natural gas export projects to compete with emerging international players also vying to supply growing Asian economies, Ernst & Young argues in a new report that puts the tab for infrastructure needed over the next decade at $50 billion. Read more…
Industry quiet as public concern grows over China’s energy influence in Canada
Financial Post – May 10, 2012
Canadian companies have happily accepted billions of dollars in investments from Chinese state-owned enterprises in recent years on the basis that the energy-hungry emerging Asian superpower will soon be their best customer. Read more…
Canada ‘most important energy partner,’ U.S. envoy says
The Globe and Mail - May 10, 2012
The United States remains deeply committed to Canada as a reliable energy supplier -including oil sands production – despite its delay ofTransCanada Corp. Keystone XL pipeline. Read more…
Majority of oil sands ownership and profits are foreign, says analysis
Financial Post – May 10, 2012
More than two-thirds of all oil sands production in Canada is owned by foreign entities, sending a majority of the industry’s profits out of the country, says a new analysis released Thursday by a British Columbia-based conservation group. Read more…
Mulcair faces a ‘western front’ on oil sands
Financial Times – May 9, 2012
Unusually, a premier is stepping forward to do battle with official Opposition leader Tom Mulcair over the pace of western Canadian resource development. Read more…
Enbridge’s eastern oil access to cost at least $2 billion
Calgary Herald – May 9, 2012
Enbridge Inc. is closing in on an application for regulatory approval to move growing volumes of crude from the West to refineries in Quebec, as customers indicate “strong support” for its pipeline proposals, chief executive Pat Daniel said on Wednesday. Read more…
Mulcair steps up environmental attacks after Tories refuse to split omnibus bill
National Post – May 9, 2012
The NDP stepped up their attacks on the government’s green credentials in Question Period on Wednesday, accusing the Tories of using a 421-page budget bill to sneak through legislation that will dismantle the nation’s environmental protections. Read more…
First nations to Enbridge: ‘We are not going to go away’
The Globe and Mail – May 9, 2012
In a dramatic and symbolic manifestation of their intense opposition to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, first nations groups marched through the corridors of power in downtown Toronto to take their message to the annual meeting of the pipeline’s sponsor, Enbridge Inc. Read more…
Alberta energy regulator confirms small pipeline leak
The Globe and Mail – May 9, 2012
Natural gas and light oil have leaked from a small pipeline in central Alberta, the latest in a string of leaks that have focused public attention on the safety of the industry. Read more…