Canada's offshore oil industry, a sliver of the country's crude sector, is drawing rising investment interest due to an aggressive push by Newfoundland and Labrador as prices plummet in oil-rich Alberta due to pipeline problems. Offshore interest in the Atlantic province stands in contrast to Western Canada's oil fields, where foreign companies have sold some $23 billion worth of assets this year due to depressed prices. ExxonMobil's Hebron off Newfoundland, Canada's easternmost province, [Read more]
Brent prices caught in the calm before the storm? Kemp
LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Crude oil traders have started to price in the resumption of North Sea shipments on the Forties pipeline, with spot prices stalling and nearby calendar spreads returning to levels before the pipeline was shutdown. Pipeline owner Ineos is working on several repair options and said it expects operations to resume within 2-4 weeks of the original shutdown on Dec. 11 (“Ineos awaiting custom parts to fix Forties oil pipeline”, Reuters, Dec. 19). Brent futures for [Read more]
Canada firm plans $200 mln coin/share offering for oil and gas
Canadian oil financing firm Oleum Capital Inc plans to raise $200 million in mid-January through what it calls the world's first offering of both shares and cryptocurrency tokens, a senior company executive told Reuters. The Calgary, Alberta-based company, which helps relatively small firms that may have trouble raising capital on their own, intends to list on the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer Dave Bradley said in an interview on Friday. The [Read more]
Nebraska regulators deny TransCanada request to amend Keystone XL application
Nebraska regulators on Tuesday denied TransCanada Corp's request to retroactively amend its route application for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project through the state, a potential setback to the company as it seeks to head off legal challenges to the approved path. The state's Public Service Commission had approved a route for Keystone XL last month, but it was not for the preferred route cited in TransCanada's application. Instead the commission approved the [Read more]
TransCanada to review Nebraska denial of motion to amend KXL route application
* TransCanada Corp says it will review the Nebraska Public Service Commission decision to deny its motion to amend an application for a route for the Keystone XL pipeline, and determine the next steps for project. * TransCanada says Keystone XL remains a viable project with strong commercial support, the company expects to secure final federal permits in early 2018. (Reporting by Nia Williams) [Read more]
Enbridge limits space in January on west Canadian oil pipelines
Enbridge Inc will ration space on its Mainline crude pipeline system in January, the company said on Tuesday, the latest sign of record storage inventories in western Canada pushing export networks to capacity. Canada's largest pipeline company said it will apportion Lines 4 and 67, which ship heavy crude, by 36 percent and Lines 2 and 3, which carry light barrels, by 17 percent. Apportionment means shippers cannot transport all their nominated volumes on the Enbridge system and can [Read more]
Nebraska regulators deny TransCanada request to amend Keystone XL application
Nebraska's Public Service Commission on Tuesday denied TransCanada Corp's motion to amend its application for a route for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline through the state, a move that the company had hoped would head off legal challenges against the project. The commission approved a path for Keystone XL last month, but it was not for the preferred route cited in the application. Instead the commission approved an "alternative mainline" route, a move pipeline opponents [Read more]
Canada oil producers exhaust options as pipelines, railroads fill
Canadian oil producers are running out of options to get crude to market as pipeline and rail capacity fills up, driving prices to four-year lows and increasing the risk of firms having to sell cheaply until at least late 2019. This will drive down the profit margins for the oil sands industry, already struggling to compete with cheaper and abundant supplies from U.S. shale. A number of foreign oil majors have left Canada's oil sands to invest in more profitable U.S. shale plays, selling over [Read more]
South Korea’s GS Caltex buys rare Canadian crude cargo for Feb
South Korean refiner GS Caltex Corp has bought a rare cargo of Cold Lake crude, the company's first purchase in more than two decades of this Canadian oil grade, a company spokesman said on Monday. The second-largest refiner in South Korea bought 300,000 barrels of the heavy sour crude for delivery in the second half of February, he said. The refiner is trying out a small volume of the oil, which has a quality similar to that of Iraq's Basra Heavy crude, a person familiar with the matter [Read more]
Oil holds below two-year highs as focus turns to U.S. output
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices were mixed on Friday, lingering below two-year highs on Friday as the continuing outage of a North Sea pipeline and OPEC-led production cuts supported prices, while climbing U.S. output kept a lid on gains. Brent crude futures were down 9 cents at $63.22 a barrel by 12:38 p.m. EST (1748 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 23 cents at $57.27 a barrel. WTI hit a two-year high of $59.05 on Nov. 24. Both contracts were on track to end [Read more]