Category: Canada

An empty lot ready for a newly built house is for sale in Calgary, Alberta, April 7, 2015. Reuters The slump in oil prices is altering the economic pecking order among Canada’s major cities, pushing cities in oil-rich Alberta from the top to the bottom, the Conference Board of Canada says. The Ottawa-based think tank says Calgary and Edmonton, which have led Canada’s cities in growth over the last several years, will fall into recession . Oil is Canada’s biggest export and the big drop in prices for that commodity is expected to be a net negative for Canada’s economy. But oil production is concentrated in the western provinces and in offshore drilling in the Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. As a result, those areas are much more vulnerable to the economic pressures created by lower oil prices, while the manufacturing-oriented economies of central Canada could […]

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Trican Well Service Ltd., headquartered in Calgary, reduced its North American workforce by approximately 2,000 as a result of cost-cutting measures initiated in late 2014. The global well service company reported its 1Q results for 2015 Tuesday, which included 26 percent decrease in consolidated revenue from 1Q of 2014. According to the report, the company’s Canadian operations generated 1Q revenue of $222.7 million and operating income of $7.8 million for 2015, compared to $353.3 million and $62.5 million, respectively, for 1Q results in 2014. Its 1Q Canadian results were “negatively impacted by reduced customer activity caused by low commodity prices.” There was a sharp decline in activity levels in late February that remained low throughout the remainder of the first quarter. Similarly, U.S. operations generated $201.4 million, a 41 percent decrease from a year prior, in revenue for 1Q of 2015. The report cited “a weak U.S. operating environment […]

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Factoring out a $1.2 billion impairment charge and other items, the Calgary, Alberta-based energy company’s operating earnings tumbled 98%, but still came in ahead of analyst expectations. Encana, which has worked to shift its focus to oil and gas liquids assets and away from natural gas , said liquids production jumped 78% from a year earlier to about 120,700 barrels a day. “We are well positioned to benefit as oil prices rise,” Chief Executive Doug Suttles told analysts on a conference call. Overall production, however, averaged about 430,100 barrels of oil equivalent a day, down from 536,100 barrels a day a year earlier. It said the drop reflects the sale of lower-margin assets and its shift to a higher-margin, liquids-weighted production mix. It also came amid a slump in global crude prices that has led the company to slash the number of active drilling rigs from 44 in November […]

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ENLARGE Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley vowed in her victory speech Tuesday to put an end to the ‘boom-and-bust roller coaster’ of tying provincial finances to the fortunes of its oil patch. Photo: dan riedlhuber/Reuters CALGARY—The long-serving center-right government of Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province became the first major Election Day casualty of slumping global oil prices, as a left-leaning government swept to power in a vote that shocked Canada’s political establishment. Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party, which has governed the western Canadian province since 1971—the longest-serving governing party in Canadian history—fell to a distant third place in Tuesday’s election, behind the leftist majority and a resurgent right-wing opposition party. The upset by the New Democratic Party threatens to slow investment and development in Alberta’s oil patch if companies dial back in anticipation of new regulatory hurdles or costs. Alberta’s once-roaring economy has already ground to a virtual standstill, with real […]

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Alberta, home to Canada’s vast oil sands, is preparing for a political shake-up for the first time in a generation as voters head to the polls Tuesday with surveys showing the Progressive Conservative’s 44-year dynasty may be coming to an end. Premier Jim Prentice is seeking to extend his Conservative party’s reign with a 13th-consecutive majority. Polls show the Tories, as the party is known, trailing Rachel Notley’s New Democrats and the right-leaning Wildrose under Brian Jean. An NDP victory may weigh on oil company earnings and share prices as the pro-labor party has pledged to raise corporate taxes and review the royalty payments made by producers, said AltaCorp analyst Jeremy McCrea. Prentice, who has led the province since September, called the early election just days after releasing a March budget designed to loosen the government’s reliance on oil revenue by increasing taxes on income, gasoline and alcohol. The […]

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ENLARGE Supporters of the Alberta New Democratic Party cheer as election results come in at election headquarters in Edmonton on Tuesday. Photo: Dan Riedlhuber/Reuters CALGARY—The longtime ruling party of Canada’s energy-rich Alberta province lost its four-decade hold on power on Tuesday, ushering in a left-leaning government that has pledged to raise corporate taxes and increase oil and gas royalties. The Alberta New Democratic Party swept enough districts to form a majority, taking most of the seats in both the business center of Calgary and the provincial capital of Edmonton, according to preliminary results from Elections Alberta. The outcome was a blow to Premier Jim Prentice’s Progressive Conservative party and one that threatens to roil the province’s economy amid a slump in energy prices. “We need to start down the road to a diversified and resilient economy. We need finally to end the boom-and-bust roller coaster that we have been […]

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ENLARGE The former fishing town of Burgeo, shown here, is one of a number of Newfoundland towns feeling the slump as many of its workers can no longer find work in Canada’s oil fields thousands of miles away. Photo: ALISTAIR MACDONALD FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BURGEO, Newfoundland—Glen Hann and his wife traveled from Newfoundland to western Canada’s oil fields eight winters in a row, returning to this former fishing town in the spring with income they could never hope to earn closer to home. Then, this past December, Mr. Hann’s employers told him to stay home. Mr. Hann is among the thousands of Newfoundlanders who have traveled west over the past decade to work in Canada’s booming oil sands, a trek that has become one of North America’s longest commutes and has supported communities in some of Canada’s poorest eastern provinces. Now, falling oil prices are putting an […]

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