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Nova Scotia may ban fracking

Dave Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the provincial government’s decision could leave Nova Scotia on the sidelines of the emerging shale gas boom . "The government’s decision appears to be largely based on considerations other than the technical knowledge and experience of industry regulators and experts in Canadian jurisdictions where hydraulic fracturing has been used safely for many decades to develop natural gas," he said in a statement Wednesday. Shale is in the pioneer stage in the province. CAAP said hydraulic fracturing has been used safely for more than 60 years in Western Canada with few incidents. Nova Scotia Energy Minister Andrew Younger said he had legislation prepared to prohibit hydraulic fracturing at inland shale basins. "Nova Scotians have overwhelmingly expressed concern about allowing high volume hydraulic fracturing to be a part of onshore shale development in this province at this time," he said […]

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Athabasca Oil Completes Sale of Stake in Project to PetroChina Co

Athabasca Oil Corp. on Friday said it completed the sale of its 40% stake in a Canadian oil-sands project to one of China’s largest state-run energy companies, putting an end to months of speculation that the deal might not go through. Athabasca said net proceeds from the sale of the Dover project stake will total 1.184 billion Canadian dollars ($1.09 billion), comprising a C$600 million cash payment at closing and three interest-bearing promissory notes for the remaining C$584 million. The company expects to use the proceeds to develop its core light-oil shale assets in the Kaybob Duvernay area of Alberta as well as its Hangingstone oil-sands project southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Chief Executive Sveinung Svarte said in a phone interview. The closing of the Dover transaction is a welcome development for the Calgary-based oil-sands developer. The deal with China National Petroleum Corp.’s publicly traded PetroChina Co. subsidiary was […]

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Athabasca Completes $1.1 Billion Deal With PetroChina

Athabasca Oil Corp. (ATH) closed a C$1.18 ($1.1 billion) agreement with PetroChina Co. (857) to sell the rest of its Dover oil-sands project, ending weeks of speculation about whether the Chinese company would pay. The shares rose. PetroChina’s payment includes C$600 million in cash and C$584 million in promissory notes due through August 2016, backed by guarantees from HSBC Bank Canada, Athabasca said today. The original agreement was for PetroChina to pay in cash. The settlement comes two months after Calgary-based Athabasca had estimated the deal would close after triggering the sale of its 40 percent stake in Dover earlier this year. The payment was delayed as the Chinese government was investigating PetroChina executives over allegations of corruption, according to reports from publications including Beijing-based Caixin. A report in Canada ’s Financial Post was among several suggesting the state-owned company was trying to delay its purchase or claw back […]

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Shell Canada: Oil-Sands Mines May Not Meet Waste Targets

CALGARY—The head of Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Canadian unit Wednesday said the company may not be able to meet promised targets for reducing toxic wastes from oil sands and called for greater regulatory flexibility. Shell, which operates two major oil-sands surface mines in northern Alberta, had committed to cutting the amount of waste generated by its heavy-oil extraction projects in Canada. But the company and other producers have struggled to meet reduction targets mandated by the government and now face the prospect of penalties if those goals remain unmet. "It’s going to be very challenging" to achieve mandated reduction targets next year, said Lorraine Mitchelmore, president of Shell Canada Ltd. Growth in natural gas and oil sands is a core focus for the energy company, she said, adding the company is committed to its operations in Canada as a "multi-decade opportunity." Ms. Mitchelmore said Shell hopes to link inland […]

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Native concerns over oil vetted in Canada

The Canadian government said it set the schedule to hear concerns from the aboriginal community about expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline. Pipeline company Kinder Morgan wants to spend more than $5 billion to twin the existing pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia. The company said the expansion would at least double the corridor’s existing capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Advocacy groups and members of the aboriginal community have expressed concern about the potential environmental impact of more oil pipelines to the western Canadian coast. The National Energy Board, a Canadian regulator, said it would hear oral evidence at a Monday hearing in Edmonton. "The board recognizes that aboriginal peoples have an oral tradition for sharing stories, lessons, and knowledge from generation to generation," NEB said in a statement Thursday. "This information cannot always be shared adequately in writing yet it will make up an […]

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Canadian Rail Accidents Involving Dangerous Goods Rose Last Year

Canadian rail accidents involving dangerous goods rose 21% last year from 2012, reflecting a rapid rise in the movement of crude oil by rail. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada recorded 144 rail accidents that involved dangerous goods last year, up from 119 in 2012 and above the five-year average of 133. The figures were contained in the Canadian safety agency’s annual report released Wednesday. Of those accidents, seven resulted in a spillage of dangerous goods, compared with two such incidents in 2012, the agency said. The latest results included the July 6, 2013, derailment of an oil train in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, which killed 47 people. The report came out a day after the TSB issued its final report on the Lac-Mégantic accident, citing 18 factors that contributed to the derailment, including a weak safety culture at the company that operated the train and lax regulatory oversight. On Tuesday, […]

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Agency Issues Two New Safety Recommendations

This July 9, 2013, file photo shows workers combing through debris three days after a train derailed, causing explosions of railway cars carrying crude oil in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. The Canadian Press/Associated Press Canada’s transportation safety agency Tuesday said inadequate Canadian government oversight and a railway company’s "weak safety culture" were among a host of factors that led to last year’s devastating oil-train derailment in Quebec. It also recommended even more measures to strengthen safety in a North American rail network dealing with a surge in the transportation of crude by rail. In the months following the July 6, 2013 accident in Lac-Mégantic, a handful of oil trains crashed and caught fire in the U.S., most recently in April at the edge of downtown Lynchburg, Va. No one was injured in those crashes, but those incidents added to concerns about the proliferation of crude-by-rail shipments across the continent. The Transportation […]

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Oil Sands are Biggest Losers From Low Crude Prices: Study

ConocoPhillips (COP) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) are among global oil companies needing crude prices as high as $150 a barrel to turn a profit from Canada’s oil sands, the costliest petroleum projects in the world, according to a study. The next most-expensive crude projects are in the deep waters off the coasts of Africa and Brazil, with each venture needing prices between $115 and $127 a barrel, said Carbon Tracker Initiative, a London-based think tank and environmental advocacy group, in a report today. As the U.S. shale drilling boom floods the world’s biggest crude market with supply, explorers are at greater risk of a price collapse that would turn some investments into money losers. “In order to sustain shareholder returns, companies should focus on low-cost projects, deferring or cancelling projects with high breakeven costs,” the report’s authors wrote. “Capital should be redeployed to share buybacks or increased […]

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Canada tightens sanctions noose on Russia

Canadian Prime Minister said new economic pressure on Russia targets technology used for oil exploration and extraction. Harper said he had grave concerns over Russia’s provocative military action in eastern Ukraine. Pro-Russian separatists there are suspected of playing a role in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet last month, killing all 295 people on board. The prime minister said he was imposing a travel ban on 19 Russian and Ukrainian individuals and economic sanctions on close to two dozen Russian and Ukrainian groups. "We are also committed to imposing the necessary regulations to enact export restrictions on technologies used in Russia’s oil exploration and extraction sector," Harper said in a statement Wednesday. "Those will be implemented in parallel with our allies." Harper in July announced sanctions against 10 separate Russian entities, including Russian independent gas company Novatek and Gazprombank, the financial arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom. […]

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PetroChina to Seal Takeover of Athabasca Oil Sands Project by End-Sept

State oil giant PetroChina plans to pay the more than $1 billion it needs to complete a takeover of the Dover oil sands project from Canadian firm Athabasca Oil Corp by the end of September, a person with knowledge of the deal told Reuters. PetroChina was supposed to complete the acquisition of Athabasca Oil’s 40 percent stake in the project in June, but delayed the payment while it reassessed the deal amid a government-led corruption probe into the Chinese national oil company, the person said. The internal review showed the geological structure of the project is more complicated than previous estimates, which would increase development costs, but the acquisition will go ahead, the person added. "The next step is to complete the transaction," said the source, who declined to be named as […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple