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Canadian National’s Main Line Shuts After Crude Cars Derail

(Bloomberg) — Canadian National Railway Co. shut its main line linking western and eastern Canada after an eastbound train carrying crude oil derailed in Ontario. The train of 100 cars, all carrying crude from Canada’s oil-producing region of Alberta to eastern Canada, derailed just before midnight Saturday in a remote and wooded area about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Gogama, Ontario, spokesman Patrick Waldron said in an e-mail. About 18 freight trains a day use the line, he said. A total of 29 cars were involved in the incident and seven caught fire. The remaining 71 cars were moved from the site, Waldron said. Some oil was spilled. Shipments scheduled along the affected corridor will be delayed by at least 24 hours, the company said. Canadian oil producers have grown dependent on shipping crude by rail as pipeline capacity has become constrained. The shutdown happened as locomotive engineers […]

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Train Carrying Crude Oil Derails in Ontario

A train carrying crude oil and operated by Canadian National Railway Co. derailed near the town of Timmins in northern Ontario just before midnight on Saturday, causing a fire but no reported injuries. The train derailed in a remote wooded area, according to a spokesman for Montreal-based CN, Canada’s largest railroad company. He said the railway company had deployed firefighting and environmental crews to the scene. The cause of the incident wasn’t yet known, he said. “Our emergency crews continue to conduct a full site assessment to determine the number of rail cars derailed and involved in the fire, and if any product has been spilled,” said CN spokesman Patrick Waldron in an emailed statement on Sunday afternoon. “Seventy-one cars of the 100-car train have been safely moved away from the derailment site. Early site assessments indicate that at total of 29 cars are involved in the incident. That […]

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Threatened Canadian Rail Strike Seen Weakening Heavy Oil Prices

(Bloomberg) — Canadian crude prices near a six-year low may weaken further should workers at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd carry through with threats to strike this weekend. The company faces a work stoppage as soon as Feb. 15 by Teamsters Canada Rail Conference and Unifor Local 101R, which represent a combined 5,000 workers. Canadian Pacific will deploy managers “to maintain a reduced freight service” on its Canadian lines. Canadian oil companies have increasingly relied on rail cars to deliver crude produced in Alberta to refineries as far away as the U.S. Gulf Coast. Canadian Pacific delivered 110,000 carloads of crude last year, 22 percent more than in 2013, according to company data. Without “enough trains operating, I could see how it will delay the deliveries of crude shipments,” Dinara Millington, a vice president at the Canadian Energy Research Institute, said by phone Friday. “The prices of WCS could decline […]

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ConocoPhillips Mulling Sale of Western Canada Gas Properties

Employees torque a pipe at a wedge well at Christina Lake, a situ oil production facility half owned by Cenovus Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips, in Conklin, Alberta, Canada. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — ConocoPhillips is considering the sale of properties that account for about 20 percent of its production in Western Canada outside the oil sands. The largest U.S. independent oil and natural gas producer is weighing whether to sell properties spread across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2015, according to a copy of a marketing document seen by Bloomberg. Production from the properties is mostly gas and amounts to the equivalent of about 31,000 barrels of oil a day after royalties. The company hopes to select advisers for the process soon, Kristen Ashcroft, a company spokeswoman, said in a phone interview Friday. The sale is part of the company’s regular review of its assets across the region, […]

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Total Canadian oil production up 8 percent

One Comment on "Total Canadian oil production up 8 percent" I know the following is off topic, however it needed to be posted somewhere, in which this chief economist on CNBC explains that all this talk of the economy accelerating is wrong – when you go to the link below click on debt rattle then on the video. Great stuff! He says the economy for the last five years continues to move along at about 2% growth. http://www.theautomaticearth.com/2015/02/debt-rattle-february-11-2015/ • Truth to Power: This Man Will Never Be Invited Back On CNBC (Zero Hedge) While Steve had a number of hard to hear quotes for the CNBC anchors – such as: “There is no acceleration in underlying economic activity,” and “There’s this wrong concept that I keep on hearing about in the financial press about the acceleration in economic growth… It’s not happening!” A stunned Simon Hobbs rebuffs, “That’s a […]

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Alberta Plans to Lean on Consumers to Weather Oil Slump

(Bloomberg) — Alberta, Canada’s third-largest provincial economy, will lean on consumers to help offset a drop in oil royalties that has led to the “evaporation” of 17 percent of revenue, Premier Jim Prentice said. Albertans should expect increases to user fees and personal taxes over three budget cycles to help pay for the most expensive public services in the country, Prentice said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. Imposing higher taxes on companies would increase the burden of confronting a slowing economy, he said. “I don’t think the right course of action right now is to increase corporate taxes or royalties,” Prentice said. “It’s the wrong time to start taxing investment and wealth. I won’t be part of it.” Sworn in September as the price of oil was in the midst of a collapse, Prentice is now tasked with reducing Alberta’s dependence on petroleum revenue while […]

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Suncor to Push Ahead With Fort Hills Oil Sands Amid Oil Rout

(Bloomberg) — Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil company, will push ahead with its planned Fort Hills oil sands project even as the price of oil hovers around $50 a barrel. Suncor will spend C$1.6 billion ($1.3 billion) this year as it advances construction of the project, the Calgary-based company said in a statement Wednesday. The operation will begin producing oil at the end of 2017, the company added. Last month Suncor announced 1,000 job cuts, lowered its 2015 capital budget by $1 billion and delayed projects to weather collapsing prices. The company and its competitors are squeezing spending in oil sands, among the most expensive reserves to develop. “Our commitment to capital discipline has put us in a better position to weather the price downturn,” Steve Williams, Suncor’s chief executive officer, said in the statement. On Wednesday, oil traded below $50 a barrel amid the most volatility since […]

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Loonie Seen Reaching 69 U.S. Cents on Oil

(Corrects currency forecasts in headline and the first two paragraphs.) (Bloomberg) — The Canadian dollar will sink as low as 69 U.S. cents with little to drive the economy after oil’s collapse, according to Macquarie Group Ltd, joining a growing list of forecasters lowering their projections. Macquarie forecast Monday the currency would reach a bottom near 69 U.S. cents. Royal Bank of Canada and Credit Suisse Group AG last week lowered their forecasts to 75 cents. HSBC Holdings Plc is calling for a 74 cent Canadian dollar. Morgan Stanley sees the loonie dropping to 71 U.S. cents by next year. “There’s going to need to be even more Canadian dollar weakness than people expect because of the significant loss of competitiveness,” Evan Brown, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, said by phone from New York. With consumer debt loads at a record high, manufacturing hobbled by the surge in the […]

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Imperial Oil Profit Falls 36%

Imperial Oil Ltd. , the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp. , posted a 36% decline in fourth-quarter earnings on Monday, hurt by lower oil prices and volumes. Imperial Oil said the continued slump in oil prices reduced earnings by about 100 million Canadian dollars ($78.7 million), while lower volumes shaved about C$50 million from profits. The Calgary, Alberta-based integrated energy company said its quarterly profit fell to C$671 million, or 79 Canadian cents a share, from C$1.06 billion, or C$1.24 a year earlier. Earnings came in ahead of the 72 Canadian cents a share analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting. Revenue of C$8.03 billion was down from C$8.36 billion a year earlier. Lower commodity prices also took a bite out of parent Exxon’s earnings. It reported a 21% drop in fourth-quarter earnings earlier Monday and unveiled plans to slash its share buyback program. Imperial Oil said production […]

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Keystone XL need mulled in shale era

Energy scholar from the University of Calgary says Canadian oil sector needs new pipelines, but not necessarily Keystone XL. (UPI/Shutterstock/smereka) Pipelines to the Canadian coasts, not necessarily Keystone XL, will diversify an export economy dependent on U.S. markets, a Canadian energy scholar said. Canada exports nearly all of its oil to the United States, which is relying less on foreign oil because of the increase in shale oil output. Data from the U.S. government show oil imports from Canada were down about 6 percent for the week ending Jan. 23. Dan McFadyen, program director of the extractive resource governance program at the University of Calgary, said in a Wednesday interview with the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association pipeline access to the East and West Coasts would help diversify the nation’s export economy . "We are mostly limited to the U.S. market, and it’s not clear in that market, whether they […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple