Police on Monday arrested the leader of Canada's largest private sector union and six others who joined workers blockading the Co-op Refinery in Regina, Saskatchewan, raising tensions in a six-week old industrial dispute. Federated Cooperatives Ltd (FCL), which owns and operates the refinery, locked out 800 workers on Dec. 5 in a dispute over pensions, but has kept western Canada's third-largest oil refinery operating with replacement workers and managers. The arrests came after Unifor, [Read more]
Oil prices ease as supply risk concerns fade
Oil prices eased on Tuesday as investors appeared to shrug off earlier supply concerns following a force majeure declared by Libya on two major oilfields amid a military blockade. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 27 cents, or 0.48%, at $58.36 a barrel. Brent crude was trading down 36 cents, or 0.55%, at $64.78 per barre after rising to their highest in more than a week on Monday. "Every time we get a big geopolitical event, the market spikes up but everybody looks at that [Read more]
Alberta regulator charges Tourmaline, others, for 2018 toxic gas release
The Alberta Energy Regulator has filed charges against Tourmaline Energy Corp and two other oil companies for a 2018 release of hydrogen sulphide that affected human health, the regulator said on Monday.Five charges under Alberta environmental and conservation laws were laid against Tourmaline and Topaz Oil Corp, and three charges against CWC Energy Services Corp , related to a release on Feb. 25, 2018 near Spirit River, Alberta. Hydrogen sulphide is a toxic gas with a smell of rotten eggs [Read more]
Locked-out workers block entrances to Canada’s Co-op Refinery
Locked-out workers at the Co-op Refinery in Regina, Saskatchewan blockaded the facility on Monday, halting the movement of workers and trucks, the union and owner said. Federated Cooperatives Ltd (FCL), which owns and operates the refinery, locked out 800 workers on Dec. 5 in a dispute over pensions, but has kept western Canada's third-largest oil refinery operating with replacement workers and managers. Unifor, which represents the workers, said that hundreds of union activists had [Read more]
Oil rises as Libyan oilfields shut down
Oil prices rose to their highest in more than week on Monday after two large crude production bases in Libya began shutting down amid a military blockade, risking reducing crude flows from the OPEC member to a trickle. The West Texas Intermediate contract was up 27 cents, or 0.5%, at $58.81 a barrel, after rising to $59.73, the highest since Jan. 10. Brent crude was up 41 cents, or 0.6%, at $65.26 by 1116 GMT, having earlier touched $66 a barrel, the highest since Jan. 9. Two major [Read more]
Extreme cold in Western Canada disrupts oil production, refining
Canadian oil producers and refiners have cut processing rates this week as extreme cold weather grips Western Canada, traders familiar with the matter said on Friday. Cold weather has spread across western Canada this week. In Edmonton, the capital of Canada's main oil-producing province, Alberta, temperatures dropped to minus 36 degrees Celsius (minus 33 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, according to Environment Canada. Syncrude, one of the largest producers of crude oil from Canada's oil sands, [Read more]
U.S. drillers add oil rigs for first week in four
U.S. energy firms this week added oil rigs for the first time in four weeks even as the pace of growth in record crude output is expected to slow. Companies added 14 oil rigs in the week to Jan. 17, bringing the total count to 673, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said in its closely followed report on Friday. In the same week a year ago, there were 852 active rigs. In 2019, the oil rig count, an early indicator of future output, dropped for the first year since 2016, as independent [Read more]
Oil steady as sluggish China growth offsets trade deal optimism
Oil prices were steady on Friday as reports of sluggish economic growth in China, the world's biggest crude importer, raised concerns about future fuel demand and countered optimism from the signing of the Sino-U.S. trade deal earlier in the week. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the world's second-largest economy increased by an expected 6% from a year earlier, while the full-year expansion was 6.1%, the slowest in 29 years, government data showed on Friday. "A well-expected fourth-quarter [Read more]
Canada top court rejects bid by British Columbia to regulate oil pipeline
The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday quickly dismissed an attempt by the western province of British Columbia to regulate what can be transported in a major crude oil pipeline crossing its territory. British Columbia wanted the right to require permits for companies shipping oil and other hazardous substances through the Trans Mountain pipeline, which transports oil from neighboring Alberta. Unusually, the top court delivered its decision immediately after hearing arguments. The [Read more]
Indigenous group vows peaceful pipeline opposition as Canadian police clamp down
An indigenous group that opposes construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia will refuse workers access to their land, but in peaceful fashion, according to one of its chiefs. The statement comes after Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) established a checkpoint on Monday for access to a remote, forested area along Coastal GasLink's route, aiming to avoid a repeat of protests a year ago that resulted in arrests. Police last week launched a criminal investigation after [Read more]