BOE Report

With crude dipping below U$40 a barrel, reserve writedowns likely in store

CALGARY - Another wave of ugly news is looming for oil producers already battered by weak oil prices.Every year, companies hire outside evaluators to tally up their reserves — a calculation of how much resource in the ground can be recovered technically and economically.With U.S. benchmark crude dipping below US$40 a barrel for the first time since early 2009, the economics are looking especially dicey these days. Oil that might have been viable to produce at stronger prices may not be [Read more]

BP restarts large US refiner of oil sands crude after unplanned shutdown

CALGARY - BP says it has restarted operations at a major unit of a U.S. refinery that processes oilsands crude from Alberta after a malfunction earlier this month.The forced shutdown of the 240,000-barrel-a-day crude distillation unit in Whiting, Ind., on Aug. 8 caused gasoline prices to spike across Western Canada.The closure also led to a wider discount on Canadian heavy crude, which dropped to more than US$20 below the North American benchmark price.BP says the Whiting restart is increasing [Read more]

Calgary man allegedly uses shell companies to defraud employer of millions

CALGARY - The co-founder of an Alberta oil and gas company has been accused of defrauding the firm of nearly $5 million.Police allege that between September 2007 and November 2011 the suspect created three shell companies that were set up to defraud his Calgary employer.They say the companies were used to create fictitious invoices for supplies and services that were not genuine transactions."The individual that was charged was in a position of authority in the company, so anything he did within [Read more]

Drop in commodities brings deeper economic pain for some provinces

CALGARY - Commodity prices are tanking and they're bringing Canadian markets down with them, but experts say some provinces will be feeling the pinch more than others."It'll feel like a recession depending on where you live in the country," said John Stephenson, chief executive of hedge fund Stephenson & Co. Capital Management.He said everything from oil to metals to lean hog prices are dropping as weaker growth globally weighs on demand."Virtually everything is down in price, and significantly [Read more]

National Energy Board hearings in to Trans Mountain pipeline expansion postponed

CALGARY - A National Energy Board panel has postponed hearings that were supposed to begin next week into the Trans Mountain expansion because a consultant who prepared evidence in favour of the project will soon work for the regulator.Kinder Morgan Canada, the company behind the project, filed evidence with the board in late 2013 that was prepared by Steven Kelly, a consultant with IHS Global Canada at the time. The report touted the project's economic benefits.In July, federal Natural [Read more]

Alberta premier won’t back away from royalty review, tax hike because of low oil

EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says falling oil prices won't force her government to back away from a royalty review or a hike to corporate taxes.The benchmark price of a barrel of crude has fallen below US$40 a barrel for the first time since the end of the global economic crisis and oil prices have been falling solidly for eight consecutive weeks.Notley says Alberta still has the best tax regime in Canada and profitable companies can pay a bit more when times are tough.The Opposition [Read more]

Trans Mountain tells NEB pipeline expansion is ‘safe and viable option’

VANCOUVER - An expanded Trans Mountain pipeline would add $18.2 billion to Canada's gross domestic product over 20 years, benefit First Nations and reduce environmental harm, Kinder Morgan says.The energy giant filed its final written submissions to the National Energy Board on Thursday, arguing the $5.4-billion proposal is a safe and viable option to transport diluted bitumen from Alberta's oilsands to British Columbia's coast."The scrutiny and rigour this project has undergone, both inside and [Read more]

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]