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Encana Cuts 2015 Budget After 85% Fall In Operating Profit

URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/137400/Encana_Cuts_2015_Budget_After_85_Fall_In_Operating_Profit CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Encana Corp, Canada’s largest natural gas producer, slashed its 2015 capital budget by a quarter on Wednesday in response to a slump in global crude oil prices. The company joins a slew of other Canadian oil and gas producers, including Suncor Energy and Cenovus Energy , that have cut back spending as benchmark crude prices more than halved since June. Encana said it will spend between $2 billion and $2.2 billion in 2015, down from the original budget of $2.8 billion announced in December. Chief Executive Officer Doug Suttles also said Encana, which since 2013 has been selling off natural gas assets to concentrate spending on regions rich in high-value gas liquids and oil, will look to see if there are further opportunities to trim its portfolio. "We are well prepared to act … The lower points in the commodity cycles […]

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Oil-Rich Alberta Sees Mass Job Loss as Crude Prices Slump

(Bloomberg) — Alberta, the Canadian province holding the world’s third-largest oil reserves, expects 31,800 jobs to be lost for the remainder of the year as a crude price crash forces producers to reduce costs. Even with the job losses, overall employment will rise 1 percent in 2015 because of gains carried over from December, the provincial finance ministry said Tuesday in a statement. That compares with a 2.2 percent increase in employment last year. It would take a loss of 80,000 jobs before year-end to prevent employment from rising, the government said. “Our reliance on the roller coaster of oil prices is something we have to change,” Finance Minister Robin Campbell said on conference call. “Even if the price of oil bounces back today, we can’t go on this way.” Suncor Energy Inc., Cenovus Energy Inc. and other oil producers have already shed thousands of jobs this year as […]

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Alberta Becomes Canada’s Most Pessimistic Region, Poll Data Show

(Bloomberg) — In a reversal of fortune, consumers in Canada’s prairie provinces Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have become the country’s most pessimistic. An index of consumer confidence calculated by Nanos Research for the prairies fell to 49.2 last week, putting it behind every other region for the first time since the series began in 2008. The decline has coincided with an oil price shock that has reduced prices for crude by more than half since June and triggered a housing market correction in cities such as Calgary and Regina. Ontario consumers have replaced those on the prairies as Canada’s most optimistic, according to the indexes. Every week, Nanos Research asks Canadians for their views on personal finances, job security, the outlook for the economy and where real estate prices are headed. This is what the survey data, which is compiled for Bloomberg News, captured for the week through Feb. […]

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Canada expects dip in crude oil production

Oil sands development in northern Alberta, Canada. Photo by chris kolaczan/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) — Growth in Canadian crude oil production is expected to slow by about 3 percent as oil prices weigh on future developments, industry leaders said. The National Energy Board in Canada said total crude oil production should average 3.8 million barrels per day in 2015. That’s about 3.5 percent less than last year and, with oil prices expected to stay well below the $100 per barrel mark for the foreseeable future, drilling activity in Canadian basins should experience a 40 percent decline year-on-year. Bill Wall, a technical specialist at the NEB, told UPI there should be a slowdown in future production, though existing products should be sustained despite the low price for oil. "Oil sands production is expected to grow, as several projects will be ramping up or coming on stream in 2015," he […]

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Canada’s Oilsands Face ‘Death Spiral’ If They Don’t Cut Costs

As the world’s oil glut continues to build, wiping out hopes of a price recovery, the head of one of Canada’s largest oilsands operators is warning the industry faces a “death spiral” if it doesn’t figure out how to cut costs. Speaking before the Chamber of Commerce in Fort McMurray, Steve Laut, president of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL), said oilsands companies can still return to health, but only if they aggressively begin to cut costs. Costs have risen so far, so fast that oil producers were making three times as much profit in 2004, when oil was at $40 a barrel, than they were a few years ago when oil was at $100 a barrel, Laut said, as quoted at the Globe and Mail . Laut’s call for cost cutting may be seen by some as a prelude to layoffs and project cancellations, but so far North America’s […]

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Canada Unveils an Oil-Train Safety Tax

A Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil derailed near Timmins, Ontario last weekend. ENLARGE Photo: Transportation Safety Board of Canada/Reuters OTTAWA—Canada said it would create a compensation fund to cover the potential costs of oil-train derailments and finance the move with a new levy on crude shippers. The planned fund—first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier Friday—was one of several new measures Canada unveiled to bolster the safety of a rail system carrying growing volumes of crude. Canada had pledged to hold railways and shippers more accountable after the derailment of a crude-carrying train in Quebec in July 2013 killed 47 people and wiped out the town’s core. The Lac-Mégantic accident spurred regulatory changes in the U.S. and Canada—from beefed up emergency-preparedness requirements to new rules governing railcars—while raising concerns about the risks the oil-by-rail boom poses to communities across North America. Those risks were highlighted again […]

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Canada Unveils Tax Breaks for LNG Development

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper. ENLARGE Photo: Zuma Press OTTAWA—The Canadian government unveiled Thursday tax breaks for developers of liquefied natural gas export projects in an effort to kick-start investment amid a low energy-price environment. At an event in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said LNG developers would be eligible to write off industrial equipment and real estate at a faster pace. The write-off is eligible for equipment and real estate acquired after Thursday up until 2025. Ottawa estimates the cost to the federal treasury of about 50 million Canadian dollars (US$40.3 million) over a five-year period. The province of British Columbia, which is banking on LNG development and shipments to spur future growth, had lobbied for such tax breaks, as did the industry. Mr. Harper said in a statement that the move “builds on our low tax plan for jobs and growth, strengthening the […]

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Canada’s Oil Industry ‘In Near-Death Condition

BobInget on Thu, 19th Feb 2015 10:45 am  Before buying or increasing ones positions it’s a grand idea to express fault in whatever you are interested in. Here’s the latest rundown. In terms of reserves; Saudi Arabia comes in SECOND. Second to Venezuela. Canada trails at number three in the World. China cornered future Venezuelan exports. This leaves Canada open for sale.Canada and Venezuela. All the rest, except deep-sea, is window dressing. Bloomberg) — For debt investors betting Venezuela will default this year as oil slumps, there is one big wildcard that threatens to sink the trade: China. The Asian nation, whose $3.9 trillion in foreign reserves are the world’s largest, has a history of lending out money to Venezuela, having doled out $45 billion over the past decade. And it has a strong incentive to provide more — Venezuela sits on the world’s biggest oil reserves while China […]

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Canada Unveils New Sanctions Against Moscow, Sympathizers in Ukraine

Canada unveiled new sanctions Tuesday evening against Moscow and its sympathizers in Ukraine that includes among its highest-profile targets the chief executive of Russia state-owned defense company Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, and the state-run energy firm Rosneft. Canada said the latest round of sanctions would apply economic sanctions and travel bans against 37 Russian and Ukrainian individuals, and economic penalties against 17 Russian and Ukrainian entities. Besides Mr. Chemezov and Rosneft, others targeted by the new Canadian sanctions include lawmakers in the Russian legislature; military officials; the head of Russia’s largest motorcycle club, the Night Wolves; and members of the Donetsk and Luhansk separatist groups in Ukraine. An official at Russia’s embassy in Ottawa declined to comment when reached Tuesday night on Canada’s new round of sanctions. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the measures were in response to “escalated acts of aggression” in recent weeks allegedly perpetrated by Russian-backed […]

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Canada railway strike ends after government threatens bill

OTTAWA, Canada (AP) — Canada’s labor minister said Monday the Canadian Pacific Railway strike had ended, with both sides agreeing to resume discussions. News of the deal came after Canada’s Conservative government threatened to introduce legislation to force an end to the strike by more than 3,000 Teamsters members, saying the strike posed a threat to the economy. In a surprise news conference, Labor Minister Kellie Leitch welcomed the willingness by both sides to resume talks, a development that had seemed impossible just hours earlier. The strike by 3,300 locomotive engineers and other train workers began just after midnight Sunday after contract talks failed. Leitch had said the strike could cost the economy more than $200 million in lost GDP every week. Teamsters union president Douglas Finnson called the government’s intervention in the strike disappointing and premature. CP Rail supported the move. Leitch had said the strike would affect […]

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