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Oil-Sands Megaproject Era Wanes as Suncor to Imperial Scale Down

(Bloomberg) — The era of the megaproject in Canada’s oil sands is fading. Crude’s price slump, pressure to get off fossil fuels and tax increases in Alberta are adding to high costs and a lack of pipelines, prompting producers from Suncor Energy Inc. to Imperial Oil Ltd. to accelerate a shift to smaller projects. Companies are deferring new mines in favor of cheaper, bite-sized drilling programs that deliver quicker returns and require less labor. The moves will help reduce cost overruns and make Canadian companies more competitive with U.S. shale producers. The trade off will be reduced production growth and a smaller economic boost for the country’s oil patch. “Capital likes certainty and it’s a bit of an uncertain world at the moment,” Steve Williams, Suncor’s chief executive officer, said June 10 in an interview at Bloomberg’s Calgary office. With crude about 46 percent below last year’s level, companies […]

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Energy job losses mount for Canada

Canadian drilling association said it expects job losses to mount in a weakened energy sector. UPI/Shutterstock/Kodda CALGARY, Alberta, June 16 (UPI) — More than 25,000 total jobs are expected to be lost in the Canadian exploration and production sector, a well drilling association said. The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors said it was revising downward its drilling forecast because of lower crude oil prices and changing market conditions in the resource-rich province of Alberta. "Since its last revision in January 2015, the number of operating days is expected to decline by an additional 10,320 days or 13 percent," the association said in its latest forecast. "A sharp drop in the number of overall operating days means an estimated reduction of 25,110 total jobs in 2015, down almost 50 percent from the 2014 total of 49,950." The Canadian National Energy Board said it was monitoring crude oil prices as […]

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Report: Canada Could Lose 185,000 Oil, Gas Jobs in 2015

Since late last year, oil and gas companies globally have fought to sustain the drop in oil prices … layoffs ensued and companies large and small were affected. And according to a new study released by the Petroleum Labour Market Information (PetroLMI) Division of Enform, a safety association for upstream oil and gas in Canada, there’s a prediction that 185,000 jobs will be lost in Canada this year due to the drop in oil prices. According to the study, in 2014, the oil and gas industry spent nearly $125 billion on exploration, development and production – which supported more than 720,000 direct and indirect jobs in Canada. About two-thirds of these jobs were concentrated in Alberta. The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) recently forecasted that more than 25,000 Canadian drilling jobs would be lost due to weak oil prices, Reuters reported. CAODC president Mark Scholz said “potential […]

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Oil-Sands Operations Resume After Wildfire

Both major oil-sands producers’ operations are located in Alberta’s Cold Lake region, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Alberta’s capital, Edmonton. The blaze had shut in nearly 10% of Canada’s oil-sands output, or about 233,000 barrels a day, since it was detected May 22. Canadian Natural said full production has resumed at its 80,000-barrel-a-day Primrose site, which had been evacuated due to the closure of an access road, and its 25,000-barrel-a-day Kirby South operation, which had cut back output after the shutdown of a third-party pipeline. Cenovus said operations have returned to normal at its nearby Foster Creek site, which has a capacity of 135,000 barrels a day and is jointly owned with ConocoPhillips . COP -0.81 % The Calgary-based company said it expects the 11-day shutdown to reduce second-quarter production by about 10,500 barrels a day and crimp annual production by about 2,600 barrels a day. However, […]

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Opinion: Busting The “Canadian Bakken” Myth

« Major Dutch waste-to-chemicals initiative more than doubles with new partners | Main | CA Energy Commission awards CSE $1.5M for development of standards-based smart EV charging platform; first employment of ISO/IEC 15118 » The financial pages of Canadian newspapers have been full of headlines lately announcing the potential of two large shale oil fields in the Northwest Territories said to contain enough oil to rival the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Montana. The report by Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) evaluated, for the first time, the volume of oil in place for the Canol and Bluefish shale formations, located in the territory’s Mackenzie Plain. It found the “thick and geographically extensive” Canol formation is expected to contain 145 billion barrels of oil, while the “much thinner” Bluefish shale contains 46 billion barrels. The report did not estimate the amount of recoverable oil, but points out that even […]

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Oil production forecast for Canada lowered

Canadian petroleum association lowers its forecast for oil production given weak market for crude oil. File photo by Brian Kersey/UPI CALGARY, Alberta, June 10 (UPI) — While demand for Canadian oil remains strong, an industry group said the low price for crude oil forced it to cut its production estimates for 2030. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said it estimated Canadian oil production would reach 5.3 million barrels per day by 2030, up from the 3.7 million bpd produced last year. In June, when crude oil prices were $40 more per barrel, CAPP estimated 2030 output at 6.4 million bpd. "While the two forecasts are similar during the early years of the forecast period, the slower pace of production in the latter years is the result of reduced capital spending intentions due to the sharp decline in global oil prices," the association said. CAPP in May said it […]

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Canadian crude in high demand amid shortages

Brisk demand along with supply disruptions due to Alberta’s wildfires have propelled Canadian heavy crude oil prices to their highest this year. Recent prices for Western Canadian Select heavy crude, a blend of bitumen from the oil sands and conventional heavy oil, reflect an unusually narrow discount to North American benchmark oil. The weakened Canadian dollar has also boosted returns for Canadian producers, even as OPEC holds firm on output to keep world prices low in a bid for more market share. Last month, wildfires in the Cold Lake region of northeastern Alberta forced Cenovus Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. to shut down major operations and evacuate staff, cutting bitumen production by a total of 230,000 barrels a day, or about 10 per cent of the province’s oil sands output. “With the forest fires and the shutdown of those projects – though those are starting to come […]

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Canada’s long-term oil output growth slashed 1.1 million b/d: CAPP

The growth in Canada’s heavy and light oil production by 2030 has been revised down 1.1 million b/d, primarily due to the near 50% drop in global prices in the past several months, a senior official at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said Tuesday. "Low prices seem to have taken a toll, and output by 2030 will now be 5.3 million b/d, compared with a forecast of 6.4 million b/d we made last June," said Greg Stringham, CAPP’s vice president for oil sands and markets. "Over the shorter to medium term of five to 15 years, the pace of growth remains consistent. But then we see signs of a slowdown." His comments came after CAPP on Tuesday released its 2015 Crude Oil Forecast, Markets and Transportation annual report. The most hit will be light oil producers in Alberta and Saskatchewan, several of whom have drilled wells but not […]

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Canadian Oil Group Cuts Long-Term Growth Forecast

CALGARY, Alberta—Canada’s long-term crude output will continue to grow, but at a slower pace than previously projected, reflecting a slew of project postponements due to the slump in oil prices, the country’s major energy trade group said Tuesday, The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers expects Canadian crude output—mostly from Alberta’s oil sands—to reach 4.96 million barrels a day by 2025. That is below its previous estimate of 5.6 million barrels a day and the 6.0 million barrels a day it had forecast back in 2013. CAPP projects crude output this year will reach 3.89 million barrels a day on capital spending of 45 billion Canadian dollars ($36.3 billion). That is slightly above last year’s output of 3.74 million barrels a day on a sharp 40% drop in spending. The lower forecast is the latest sign of a global retrenchment in oil and gas investment that has hit the most […]

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Crude oil shipper settles in Lac-Megantic rail disaster

Miami company that sold crude oil tied to Lac-Megantic disaster in 2013 contributes to multi-million dollar settlement for vicitms. Photo by Steven Frame/Shutterstock MIAMI, June 9 (UPI) — A company tied to the sale of the oil on the train that crashed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in 2013 said it agreed to contribute to a settlement for victims. World Fuel Services Corp. said it agreed to contribute about $90 million to a compensation fund for victims of the 2013 derailment as part of a settlement with the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and its bankruptcy trustees. "We believe that participating in the settlement and contributing to the compensation fund is in the best interests of our shareholders and will also aid in providing closure to those affected by this tragic accident," the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, Michael Kasbar, said in a statement. A World Fuel subsidiary sold the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple