U.S. energy companies cut nine oil drilling rigs this week, the biggest reduction since May 2016, following a recent decline in crude prices. The oil rig count fell to 860 in the week to Aug. 24, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. U.S. crude futures , trading around $69 per barrel, were down about 7 percent so far this quarter, heading for the first quarterly decline since the second quarter last year. Prices this week [Read more]
Shelved Aramco IPO hits at heart of Saudi prince’s reforms
Saudi Arabia's decision to shelve what was billed as the biggest share sale ever is a major blow to the credibility of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman but there are other ways to finance reforms to strengthen the economy, bankers and investors say. The initial public offering (IPO) of 5 percent of state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco was a centrepiece of the crown prince's plan to diversify the kingdom's economy beyond oil by raising $100 billion for investment in other sectors. The [Read more]
Canada should bring in stronger rail cars for crude before 2025 -official
Canada ought to require stronger tank cars for transporting flammable liquids sooner than the current deadline in 2025, Transportation Safety Board Chair Kathy Fox said on Thursday, noting that crude-by-rail shipments are expected to rise in the country. "We understand that it can't happen all at once. But we'd like to see it sooner," Fox said in an interview, without giving a specific alternative date. "We do have an ongoing concern that flammable liquids be transported [Read more]
Top Canadian court quashes city’s challenge of Trans Mountain pipeline
Canada's Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed an application by the City of Burnaby, British Columbia to appeal a regulatory decision that allowed expansion work on the Trans Mountain oil pipeline to skirt some bylaws.Burnaby was seeking to overturn a December ruling by Canada's National Energy Board that allowed pipeline owner Kinder Morgan Canada to sidestep some municipal permits while building the project. The board found that Burnaby's bylaw review process caused [Read more]
Trans Mountain faced delay, work proceeding says new Natural Resources Minister
The federal resource minister said on Wednesday that construction on the Trans Mountain project had faced a delay, but he did not provide an update on when the expansion of the oil pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia's coast would be complete. The Liberals agreed in May to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd for $4.5 billion, in an effort to ensure its expansion went ahead. It is currently scheduled to be in service by December 2020. "Yes, there's a delay because of - the [Read more]
Baytex Energy, Raging River gain on shareholder nod for merger deal
** Shares of Canadian oil and gas producer Baytex Energy rise 4.9 pct ** Co gets shareholder approval for its planned deal to buy rival Raging River Exploration for C$2.8 bln ($2.13 bln)** Raging River shares up 5.3 pct, extending a 3-day run; Baytex's U.S.-listed shares gain 4 pct, rising for the 5th straight session** BTE said it would buy RRX in June, becoming yet another company to bet big on Canada's vast shale reserves ** RRX's market cap is about C$1.2 bln, per TR [Read more]
Canada’s ultra-cheap natural gas drives hopes of petrochemical boom
Alberta is looking to recreate the building boom spreading along the U.S. Gulf Coast, where inexpensive natural gas generated billions of dollars in investment by petrochemical companies. The adoption by drillers of fracking technology to unlock oil and gas from shale rock expanded U.S. production dramatically starting a decade ago. That abundance has generated $194 billion since 2010 in announced capital investment to build or expand U.S. chemical plants that use gas to make plastics, [Read more]
Alberta to roll out automated oil project review system
Alberta is implementing a new automated system for assessing proposed energy projects that it says will speed up reviews and save industry money, with plans to have the system fully operational by 2021. It says the new system, known as an Integrated Decision Approach (IDA), will allow companies to submit one application to cover the life of a project, instead of separate applications for different project activities. The system, operated by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) and piloted [Read more]
Shell Canada’s Corunna refinery experiences unit upset- local media
* Shell Canada's 75,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Corunna, Ontario experienced a unit upset on Tuesday morning, according to a report on blackburnnews.com. * Site personnel are working to limit disruptions to normal operations, the report said, adding the upset resulted in higher than normal flaring. Source: () (Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru) [Read more]
U.S. Department of Energy offers 11 million barrels of oil for sale from SPR
NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is offering 11 million barrels of oil for sale from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) ahead of sanctions on Iran that are expected to reduce global supplies of crude. The delivery period for the proposed sale of sour crudes will be from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30, according to Monday’s notice. The U.S. government has introduced financial sanctions against Iran which, beginning in November, also target the petroleum [Read more]