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Challengers Attack Canada’s Pro-Oil Harper for Stalled Pipelines

Stephen Harper’s two challengers for prime minister have regularly taken swipes at him during Canada’s election campaign for failing to get oil pipelines built. Harper, a Conservative who represents a Calgary constituency, is regarded as one of the most petroleum-friendly politicians in Canada. Therein lies the problem, according to his opponents. How to start up new pipelines is a major preoccupation for a Canadian oil industry increasingly worried about getting product to market. The troubled Keystone XL project is just one of four proposals mired in delay due to concerns over carbon emissions from the oil sands and potential spills. “He hasn’t got pipelines built. He has made the oil sands an international pariah,” Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said of Harper during a leaders debate on the economy last week that happened to be held in hard-hit Calgary. “Under Stephen Harper’s stewardship,” New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair said, […]

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Oilsands may face severe water shortages, Athabasca River study suggests

The study also confirmed that overall flows in the Athabasca River are declining. That’s something that was already known and thought to be mainly because of the melting and shrinking of glaciers, seen in this photo of the river’s headwaters. (David Sauchyn) The river that provides water to the oilsands industry is much more prone to multi-year droughts than modern records show, suggesting that the industry’s current level of water use may not be sustainable, a new study suggests. The oilsands industry needs 3.1 barrels of fresh water to produce a barrel of crude oil from oilsands mining and 0.4 barrels of fresh water to produce a barrel of crude oil from oilsands drilling, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers . That water comes mainly from northern Alberta’s Athabasca River, and oilsands account for 72 per cent of estimated water use from the river. The government regulates […]

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ConocoPhillips Said to Be Near Deal to Sell Canadian Assets

ConocoPhillips, the third-largest North American oil and gas producer, is nearing a deal to sell several Western Canadian assets to various buyers including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., people with knowledge of the matter said. An agreement could be reached as early as this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. A deal hasn’t been finalized and talks could still fall apart, the people said. Production from the properties, located in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, represents about 20 percent of the Houston-based company’s Canadian volumes outside of oil sands. The properties produce the equivalent of almost 35,000 barrels of oil and gas a day and include a net working interest in 2.4 million acres for future drilling, according to the marketing material for the assets, an area slightly larger than Yellowstone National Park. Based on that, the group of assets could […]

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Suncor’s Fort Hills Deal Shows Slump Hitting Oil-Sands Assets

Suncor Energy Inc.’s bargain on a further 10 percent stake in its Fort Hills oil-sands project shows how the energy market crash is reducing asset values in one of the most expensive places on Earth to extract crude. Canada’s largest energy producer will pay Total SA C$310 million ($234 million) for an additional 10 percent share in the C$15 billion oil sands mine being built in northern Alberta, the companies said Monday. That’s less than a third of the value Teck Resources Ltd., another partner in the project, ascribes to its stake. Teck said its 20 percent is worth C$2.3 billion in a July release. The deal is also 31 percent less than the C$450 million Desjardins Capital Markets assumes a 10 percent stake in Fort Hills is worth. Desjardins based its estimate on a reduced long-term U.S. oil price of $80 a barrel starting in 2017, Justin Bouchard, […]

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Canadian gas exports to U.S. plummet

Canadian energy regulators reports gas exports to the United States are down dramatically. Photo by Heather Snow/Shutterstock CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 17 (UPI) — Canadian natural gas exports to the United States for the seven years ending in 2014 are down significantly because of U.S. shale production, a regulator said. The National Energy Board said in a market snapshot natural gas exports are down dramatically. For the eastern United States, exports are down more than 65 percent for the seven years ending 2014. For the market in the U.S. Midwest, natural gas exports are down nearly 23 percent through 2014. "Rapid development of unconventional gas projects has increased U.S. natural gas production," the NEB said. "As a result, natural gas exports from Canada to the U.S. have been decreasing." NEB said pipeline revisions have shifted exports away from Midwest markets as well. Canada relies heavily on export revenue from oil […]

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Ontario refineries shove foreign oil aside

Enbridge pipelines credited for shifting eastern Canadian refineries away from foreign crude oil. Photo by Heather Snow/Shutterstock CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 10 (UPI) — Refineries in Ontario have shifted from foreign to domestic supplies of crude oil in the 14 years ending in 2014, the national energy regulator said. The National Energy Board attributed pipeline developments from Enbridge for the turnaround beginning in 2000, when 46 percent of the crude oil refined in Ontario came from foreign supplies. By 2014, foreign supplies were nearly eliminated from the provincial downstream sector as more domestic crude oil moved east. In the five years ending in 2010, Enbridge expanded a pipeline system to move more western Canadian crude oil to Ontario and U.S. refineries so that, by 2010, domestic crude accounted for 79 percent of Ontario feedstock. Since 2013, Enbridge completed further pipeline expansions and overhauls. "By 2014, almost all of the crude […]

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Canadian Oil Sands Not Planning to Sell Future Production

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. isn’t planning to sell future royalty production after considering the option, a company spokeswoman said. Canadian Oil Sands has enough liquidity to survive a period of low oil prices, Siren Fisekci, a company spokeswoman, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. The company isn’t pursuing any other plans at the moment to raise capital and isn’t for sale, she said. Management of the largest owner of Syncrude Canada Ltd. spoke with Holder Highfields Capital about selling some future production for upfront payment to help boost the company’s flagging shares, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier. The oil-sands producer in January cut its dividend the most since 1998 to cope with sinking crude prices. Shares of Canadian Oil Sands have declined 38 percent this year. The stock rose 3.7 percent to C$6.50 at 2:44 p.m. in Toronto.

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In Canada’s prairies, crude slump puts first oil patch in reverse

Sr. foreman Dwayne Roy checking tap for production at an active well site about 60 kilometres east of field office during a tour of Gear Energy’s well sites near Lloydminster, Saskatchewan August 27, 2015. Amid the corn and canola fields of eastern Saskatchewan, oil foreman Dwayne Roy is doing what Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC producers are loath to do: shutting the taps on active wells. Inside a six-foot-square wooden shed that houses a basic hydraulic pump, the Gear Energy Ltd employee demonstrates how shutting down a conventional heavy oil well in this lesser-known Canadian oil patch is as simple as flipping a switch. His company has already done so hundreds of times this year, making the Lloydminster industry among the first in the world to yield in a global battle for oil market share that has sent crude prices tumbling to six-year lows. Gear Energy Ltd, has idled […]

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The Oil-Sands Glut Is About to Get a Lot Bigger

The last place oil producers want to be when prices plummet to profit-demolishing lows is midstream on a billion-dollar project in one of the costliest parts of the planet to extract crude. Yet that’s exactly where half a dozen oil sands operators from Suncor Energy Inc. to Brion Energy Corp. find themselves with prices for Canadian oil now hovering around $30 a barrel. While all around them projects have been postponed or canceled, their investments were judged too far along when the oil game suddenly moved from offense to defense. These projects will add at least another 500,000 barrels a day — roughly a 25 percent increase from Alberta — to an oversupplied North American market by 2017. For companies stuck spending billions in a downturn, the time required to earn back their investments will lengthen considerably, said Rafi Tahmazian, senior portfolio manager at Canoe Financial LP. “But the […]

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Canadian oil sector edging forward

More Canadian oil projects despite slumping oil-based economy. Photo courtesy of Husky Energy CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 2 (UPI) — Despite working in a weak market, two companies — Husky Energy and ConocoPhillips — announced the start of new oil operations in Canadian oil sands. Husky announced the start of operations at its Sunrise energy project in Alberta. Production began in April and the new phase of development should put the project closer to full capacity of 60,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of next year. Data from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers show oil sand deposits, centered largely in Alberta province, hold an estimated 167 billion barrels of oil, the third largest reserves in the world. Canada depends heavily on oil and natural gas for government revenue. With crude oil prices more than 50 percent below mid-2014 levels, the nation has teetered on the brink […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple