A vicious one-two-three punch that started with a gloomy long-term future outlook due to rampant fossil fuel divestments, climate change policies, and decarbonization as well as shorter-term—but severe—shocks from the COVID-19 crisis, has thrown Canada’s most important export industry into an existential crisis. Meanwhile, the drumbeat of exits by foreign oil firms bailing on the unprofitable tar sands has added an extra layer of gloom for an industry responsible for a fifth of Canada’s exports. It, therefore, comes as little surprise that Canada’s oil and gas producers are scrambling to merge as they hope to survive to see another oil boom. A wave of consolidation has hit Canada’s Montney oil and gas region as smaller companies sell their assets to bigger oil firms. Straddling northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta, the Montney is one of Canada’s leading shale oil epicenters, producing 1.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, […]