VANCOUER, B.C. - Energy projects like an LNG Canada export terminal and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion may face short-term setbacks but the pandemic and oil price crash shouldn't threaten their long-term viability, economists say. Andrew Leach, an energy economist at the University of Alberta, said the long-term forecast for both natural gas and oil remains steady, even as some companies scale back workforces to meet safety protocols. "I think the consensus amongst most people is [Read more]
Alberta unveils process for paying out $1 billion in oilfield cleanup grants
CALGARY - Oilfield services companies in Alberta will be able to apply through an online portal starting May 1 for $1 billion in grants under the oilfield rehabilitation program announced by the federal government last week. Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage says the grant money will be doled out by her department in $100-million increments with an initial focus on service companies that have been most impacted by the current economic downturn. She says the grants will cover between 25 [Read more]
Top court overturns oilsands mine approval over Aboriginal concerns for land
EDMONTON - Alberta's highest court has overturned regulatory approvals for a $440-million oilsands mine that would have encroached on land a local First Nation considers sacred. The Court of Appeal says the Alberta Energy Regulator's refusal to consider concerns from the Fort McKay First Nation violated the honour of the Crown. The band is surrounded on three sides by oilsands development and says the Moose Lake area in northern Alberta is the last place members can go to practice their [Read more]
Bellatrix sale to Return Energy proposed as exit to creditor protection status
Calgary-based Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. says it has struck a deal to exit Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act court protection after six months through a sale of its assets to Return Energy Inc. Return would pay $87.4 million in cash under the agreement and assume liabilities it estimated to be worth about $14.8 million. Upon closing the deal, it says it would be renamed Spartan Delta Corp. and undergo a one-for-100 share consolidation. The proposed transaction is subject to the [Read more]
Sierra Club loses legal fight against environmental exemptions for frack dams
VANCOUVER - An environmental group has lost its legal challenge to regulatory exemptions given to a pair of dams in northern British Columbia. The dams were built by Progress Energy to store water for its natural gas fracking operations. The Supreme Court of British Columbia heard that the company inadvertently built the dams too high, which brought into force environmental regulations the dams couldn't meet. The province then granted the company an exemption from those [Read more]
Enerplus shutting in U.S. and Canadian wells due to low crude oil prices
CALGARY - Enerplus Corp. is shutting down oil wells and again cutting its capital spending plans due to low crude prices linked to measures taken to control the COVID-19 pandemic. In an announcement two days after benchmark U.S. oil futures prices fell into negative territory for the first time in history, Enerplus says it will cut another $25 million to take its 2020 capital budget to $300 million. The reduction and a previous one announced in mid-March leaves it at about 55 per cent of [Read more]
Q&A: Oil prices go negative. What does that mean?
The world is awash in oil, there's little demand for it and we're running out of places to put it. That in a nutshell explains this week's strange and unprecedented action in the market for crude oil futures contracts, where traders essentially offered to pay someone else to deal with the oil they were due to have delivered next month. The price of U.S. benchmark crude that would be delivered in May was selling for around $15 a barrel Monday morning, but fell as low as -$40 per barrel [Read more]
Q&A: How does Western Canadian Select oil pricing work?
CALGARY - Western Canada's oil price woes are often illustrated by references to the Western Canadian Select benchmark crude oil price. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney over the weekend released a tweet warning WCS is "now trading at negative prices," with an illustration showing the price as minus one cent US. The reality is much more complicated, according to NE2, a physical oil brokerage and derivatives exchange with operations in Calgary and Houston. NE2 says it handled deals involving about [Read more]
ConocoPhillips to cut oil production in Alberta, cites weak prices, COVID-19
CALGARY - ConocoPhillips says it plans to cut production at its Surmont oilsands operation in northern Alberta due to low oil prices until market conditions improve. The Houston-based company said in a release that it expects to reduce production at Surmont by approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day to 35,000 by May. It said given ongoing uncertainty and continued market volatility, the company's previous 2020 guidance items should not be relied upon. "These actions reflect our [Read more]
Trudeau says $1.7B coming for orphaned-well cleanups
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will support work in the oil and gas sector by spending $1.7 billion to help clean up "orphaned wells." He says restoring abandoned oil and gas wells is good for the environment, for landowners who have to contend with them, and for thousands of workers the effort will employ. The federal government is also creating a $750-million fund to cut methane emissions. Speaking outside his Ottawa residence, Trudeau says the [Read more]
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