BOE Report

Irving Oil to conduct $200 million maintenance project for Saint John refinery

SAINT JOHN, N.B. - Thousands of temporary jobs will be created in New Brunswick this fall during a maintenance and upgrade project at the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John described as the largest in the company's history.Company officials said Thursday the $200-million project, or turnaround as it is termed, will see half the refinery shut down for 60 days starting Sept. 16. The refinery's output will be halved to about 150,000 barrels a day while the work is underway.The company does a [Read more]

Alberta Energy Regulator responding to NuVista spill in northwestern Alberta

CALGARY - A pipeline in northwestern Alberta has spilled about 100,000 litres of a mixture of water, oil and gas.Calgary-based NuVista Energy (TSX:NVA) owns the six-inch diameter oil emulsion pipeline, which leaked on the Hay Lake First Nation, about 100 kilometres northwest of High Level, Alta.On Friday afternoon, a helicopter crew doing regular daily inspection and maintenance work saw a "small area of stressed vegetation" along the pipeline route and the line was shut down immediately, [Read more]

More pain for Canadian producers as oil hits six year low on higher stockpiles

CALGARY - The price of oil hit a six-year low Wednesday as U.S. stockpiles posted an unexpected increase, bringing further pain to Canadian oilsands producers.The price of West Texas Intermediate, the North American oil benchmark, went as low as US$40.40 in intraday trading after a U.S. Energy Information Agency report showed a 2.6-million-barrel increase in American crude oil inventories.In a research note, Desjardins Capital Markets said the analyst consensus called for a 400,000 barrel drop [Read more]

As crude hits six-year lows, towns in Alberta’s oilpatch feeling the pinch

CALGARY - Oil prices are the lowest they've been since the Great Recession and mayors in Alberta's oilpatch are noticing the difference."The barber says that he has less customers coming in," says Tom Tarpey, mayor of Peace River, population 7,000."I certainly notice less trucks and cars parked at the hotels in town overnight."The town in northwestern Alberta is eager to see the economic boost from Shell's Carmon Creek oilsands project. But in May, the company decided to slow the development by [Read more]

Northwestern B.C. governments form alliance to win share of resource cash

TERRACE, B.C. - The indirect cost of workers commuting to energy-sector jobs has prompted 21 local governments in British Columbia's northwest to band together and press the province for a greater share of project revenues.Representatives met in Terrace on Saturday to formalize the Resource Benefits Alliance.Stacey Tyers, the group's chairwoman, said workers used to move their families into northwestern B.C. towns for new projects but now most people fly in and out for a job."(Workers) use our [Read more]

NEB OKs Goldboro LNG project to export liquefied natural gas from N.S. terminal

HALIFAX - Pieridae Energy (Canada) Ltd. says it has received Canadian approval to export natural gas in liquefied form to Europe from a proposed LNG terminal in Nova Scotia.The company says the National Energy Board has granted it 20-year licences to import gas from the United States and to export it from the proposed Goldboro LNG terminal.An affiliated company has already received similar approvals from the U.S. Department of Energy.Pieridae is one of three groups that has sought the NEB's [Read more]

Western Canada feeling twin pains of low crude and high gas prices

CALGARY - Western Canada is being hit with the twin pains of the lowest prices for heavy crude in years alongside a significant spike in gasoline prices following a shutdown at a major U.S. refinery.Much of Canada west of Ontario saw gasoline prices jump 15 cents a litre this week for one of the biggest increases on record, says Dan McTeague, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com."The price jump was historical," said McTeague. "The last time we saw a jump of that magnitude was 12 cents [Read more]

Alberta government to provide update on climate change review panel

CALGARY - An expert panel on climate change will weigh input from the Alberta public as it determines how the province can best tackle emissions.The five-member panel, chaired by University of Alberta economist Andrew Leach, is embarking on consultations without any pre-set reduction targets in mind and aims to have the "architecture" of a broad policy ready for UN climate talks in Paris this December."Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing our province and our world," said NDP [Read more]

Rail versus Pipe: new Fraser Institute report says pipelines safer than rail

CALGARY - TransCanada (TSX:TRP) is pointing to a new study on how pipeline safety stacks up against rail to show why two of its controversial projects should be built.According to the report by the Fraser Institute released Thursday, the rate of incidents or accidents per million barrels of transported crude is 4 1/2 times higher for rail than for pipelines.The think tank crunched data from the federal Transportation Safety Board and Transport Canada between 2003 and 2013 to come to that [Read more]

Vermilion on the lookout for acquisitions to bolster globe-spanning portfolio

CALGARY - Vermilion Energy is looking to go shopping for acquisitions to grow its globe-spanning portfolio, but bargains aren't cropping up just yet.Right now there's a disconnect between what sellers and buyers consider a fair price but that gap is expected to narrow in the coming months, CEO Lorenzo Donadeo said in an interview."We've looked at a number of opportunities, but just couldn't get comfortable with the asking price. But our thoughts are, if prices continue to muddle at these levels, [Read more]