EDMONTON - Alberta has signed an agreement with the federal government that makes major cuts to environmental monitoring of the oilsands. The deal, a copy of which has been obtained by The Canadian Press, lays out research plans for this year's field season under a federal-provincial program that oversees all monitoring of the area outside of company leases. Signed July 7 by top bureaucrats in Ottawa and Edmonton, it cuts funding by at least 25 per cent. The budget has been cut to no more [Read more]

CALGARY - The Petroleum Services Association of Canada is cutting its 2020 Canadian drilling forecast for a third time as the industry remains mired in a slump expected to extend well into the second half of the year. The association says it now expects just 2,800 wells will be drilled in Canada this year, down from a nearly 50-year low of 3,100 in its revised forecast in April. The new forecast for 2020 is 43 per cent lower than the 4,900 wells drilled in 2019. PSAC interim CEO [Read more]

CALGARY - A new report predicts Canadian oilsands production will have its biggest annual decline on record this year, dropping by an average of nearly 175,000 barrels per day due to issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. But research firm IHS Markit says the step back in 2020 isn't expected to greatly affect the rest of its 10-year forecast. It says it expects oilsands production to reach 3.8 million barrels per day by 2030, down slightly from a previous forecast for 3.9 million [Read more]

CALGARY - A report funded by the Canadian liquefied natural gas industry estimates that creating a 56-million-tonnes-per-year LNG industry in B.C. would result in nearly 100,000 jobs. The Conference Board of Canada report, funded by the Canadian LNG Alliance, examines a scenario where 56 million tonnes per year of LNG is produced by 2034, including an expansion of the $40-billion LNG Canada project now under construction in Kitimat, B.C. The LNG Canada website notes that the expansion [Read more]