BOE Report

Notley says open to talks on child care panel as legislature wraps up

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EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says she's open to negotiating with the opposition to rescue a fractious all-party panel exploring ways to keep kids safe in government care. "There are elements of what the opposition put forward that I think we can absolutely incorporate," Notley told reporters at a legislature news conference Wednesday. "Not everything that they're asking for will necessarily be included but we're certainly open to working with them." The panel [Read more]

NewsAlert: Statoil sells oilsands assets to Athabasca Oil in deal worth up to $832 million

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Calgary-based Athabasca Oil Corp. (TSX:ATH) has struck a deal to buy the northern Alberta oilsands assets of Norwegian oil giant Statoil ASA for up to $832 million. The surprise sale agreement announced Wednesday includes Statoil's six-year-old Leismer thermal oilsands project, which uses steam to produce 24,000 barrels per day of bitumen from wells, and its proposed Corner oilsands project, plus associated infrastructure. “This transaction corresponds with Statoil’s strategy of [Read more]

Two Texans who love Canadian oil offered pipeline-policy roles in Trump cabinet

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WASHINGTON - Donald Trump's prospective cabinet is now stacked with friends of Canadian oil, with vocal proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline his picks to run key posts in the State and Energy departments. Both are from the state where the pipeline concludes: Texas. Trump announced Tuesday that he'll ask Congress to approve Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as the U.S's top diplomat — and the decision on international pipeline permits belongs to the secretary of state. And Rick [Read more]

Husky Energy plans increased capital budget, higher daily output for 2017

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CALGARY - Husky Energy (TSX:HSE) says it will spend an extra $100 million next year to connect additional wells at its underperforming Sunrise oilsands project to spur it to design capacity of 60,000 barrels per day by 2018. The new spending is included in the Calgary-based company's 2017 capital budget of between $2.6 billion and $2.7 billion, revealed Tuesday. Husky's spending this year is expected to come in at about $2 billion, down $100 million from previous estimates due to cost [Read more]

Oil production pledges prompt optimism that Canadian oilpatch will grow again

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CALGARY - A dramatic jump in oil prices linked to the promise of lower global production is fuelling hope that the Canadian oil sector may soon recover from a two-year economic slump. Observers say they are optimistic that Saudi Arabia, the top exporter in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is committed to cut exports to reduce a global oil glut that has depressed prices and contributed to thousands of layoffs in Western Canada. They are also taking heart from [Read more]

NewsAlert: Federal government appoints three new bilingual NEB members

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OTTAWA - Federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr has moved to revive the stalled review of TransCanada's Energy East pipeline by appointing three new, bilingual, temporary members to the National Energy Board. The move came Monday while the dust was still settling on the Liberal government's pan-Canadian climate policy framework, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrestled into reality late Friday in a hard-won and less-than-unanimous agreement with provincial and territorial [Read more]

Trump says Keystone XL news coming soon, blasts F-35 costs and the CIA

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WASHINGTON - Donald Trump has suggested he'll move quickly on Keystone XL after taking office, with the incoming president expected to reverse his predecessor's ban on the Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline. The president-elect made the comments in a lengthy interview with Fox News on Sunday. It was just one remark on a news-filled weekend replete with stories about election-tampering from Russia, potential major changes to U.S. policy on China, fights over cabinet picks and the U.S. [Read more]

PM boasts of national climate change agreement, but without Saskatchewan

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OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared victory Friday in his campaign to craft a national "framework" agreement on climate change — even though Saskatchewan and Manitoba refused to sign on to the deal and British Columbia claimed a major carve-out. Even as Trudeau was asserting the provinces and territories "are all in this together," it was painfully apparent that major divisions remain. Carbon pricing, said Trudeau, "will apply across 100 per cent of this country" [Read more]

Brad Wall will not be signing national carbon tax framework at ministers’ meeting

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OTTAWA—A day-long meeting of first ministers on finalizing a pan-Canadian climate plan is off to a fractious start. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is flatly asserting he won’t be signing any agreement today on a national carbon price, while B.C.’s Christy Clark says elements of the deal may have to be set aside for further assessment. Wall is dead set against a federally imposed tax on carbon dioxide emissions, saying Ottawa has failed to provide an economic analysis of the biggest tax [Read more]

Alberta Crown drilling rights auctions deliver lowest payoff in 39 years

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CALGARY - Sales of Crown drilling rights in Alberta have fallen to their lowest levels in 39 years. Statistics posted on the Alberta Energy website this week, following the last auction of 2016, show that oil and gas producers paid $137 million this year for the right to drill oil and gas wells on land where the province owns the mineral rights. That's the poorest showing since the province adopted its current auction system back in 1977 and worse than the previous low of $149 [Read more]