BOE Report

BOE Report Staff

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Alberta regulator approves oilsands expansion

  CALGARY - Alberta's energy regulator has recommended approval of Shell Canada's plan to expand oilsands production, even though it acknowledges the environmental impacts will likely be so severe and "irreversible" that new protected areas should be created to compensate for the damage. A 413-page report contains an extensive list of recommendations and conditions for both governments and Shell (NYSE:RDS) and contains some of the most strongly worded language yet on the industry's [Read more]

Athabasca on hunt for Duvernay partner

  CALGARY - Athabasca Oil is looking for a joint-venture partner to help develop its land in Alberta's Duvernay shale this year, CEO Sveinung Svarte said Wednesday. The Calgary-based oil company (TSX:ATH) intends to begin a formal process to find a deal, Svarte said at the TD Securities Calgary Energy Conference. Athabasca disclosed nearly a year ago that it was in the early stages of forming a joint venture for its Hangingstone and Birch oilsands properties, though no deal has [Read more]

Crude focus of deadly railway crash, but far more chemicals transported by rail

  MONTREAL - The explosive railway crash in Lac Megantic, Que., has put the focus on the growing transportation of crude oil, but far more hazardous materials, including dangerous chemical compounds, are transported near Canadian communities.Canadian railway companies shipped 86,000 carloads of petroleum products in the second quarter, up 18 per cent from last year and 62 per cent from 2011.But railways transported 154,000 carloads of chemicals during the recent period, 79 per cent more [Read more]

Quebec oil train derailment sparks criminal probe

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — Quebec police are pursuing a painstaking, wide-ranging criminal investigation of the inferno ignited by the derailment of a runaway oil train that killed at least 15 people and left dozens missing in the burned-out ruins of a downtown district. Quebec police inspector Michel Forget ruled out terrorism as a cause, but said that an array of other possibilities remain under investigation, including criminal negligence. Other officials have raised the possibility that [Read more]

Oil above $105 on report of falling US stocks

  The price of oil pushed above US$105 a barrel Wednesday after a report indicated that U.S. crude stockpiles fell by far more than expected last week, in a potential sign of growing demand in the world's largest economy.By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was up $1.61 to US$105.14 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil was trading at its highest price since early May 2012.The advance came after [Read more]

Rail delivery of U.S. oil and petroleum products continues to increase

An EIA Report With U.S. crude oil production at the highest level in two decades, outstripping pipeline capacity, the United States is relying more on railroads to move its new crude oil to refineries and storage centers. The amount of crude oil and refined petroleum products transported by rail totaled close to 356,000 carloads during the first half of 2013, up 48% from the same period in 2012, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR). U.S. weekly carloadings of crude oil and [Read more]

No rules against leaving unattended trains on main tracks: Transport Canada

  OTTAWA - Transport Canada says there are no rules against leaving an unlocked, unmanned, running locomotive and its flammable cargo on a main rail line uphill from a populated centre.Officials with the federal rail regulator say they are looking at the overall safety of the rail system after the devastation wrought on the weekend by a runaway 73-car train carrying crude oil east through Quebec.The downtown of Lac-Megantic was flattened when an unattended train rolled in and exploded [Read more]

TRAGIC: Dozens feared dead in Quebec oil-train derailment

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) -- Blackened debris, twisted metal and gas leaks hampered rescue workers' search for perhaps dozens of bodies Tuesday, three days after a runaway oil train smashed into this small lakeside town and incinerated homes, a library and a crowded bar. Thirteen people were confirmed dead and nearly 40 others were still missing in a catastrophe that raised questions about the safety of transporting oil by rail instead of pipeline. Investigators were zeroing in on whether [Read more]

Oily sheen appears on Athabasca River

  FORT CHIPEWYAN, Alta. - A northern Alberta Indian band says a mysterious oily sheen on the Athabasca River appears to be spreading and is lapping at the shores of Fort Chipewyan. "It's not a huge amount," Eriel Deranger, spokeswoman for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, said Tuesday. "But there is obviously a petrochemical of some kind in the Athabasca River system in such great quantities from upstream that it is now residing on the shores of Lake Athabasca." Reports of dead [Read more]

TransCanada CEO says there’s no silver lining for pipelines after rail disaster

  CALGARY - Executives with major Canadian pipeline companies say they see no silver lining to the Lac-Megantic train disaster.There have been suggestions that transporting oil by pipeline may seem more palatable after several oil-laden rail cars exploded over the weekend, killing more than a dozen people and devastating the small Quebec town.But TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) CEO Russ Girling said there's "no good news here for anybody" in the tragedy and the notion that the pipeline [Read more]