BOE Report

Shell exploration plans in Alaska stoking concern, hope in Canada

CALGARY - Royal Dutch Shell's plans to explore for oil off Alaska's northwestern coast are being closely watched in Canada with a mixture of hope and concern.Earlier this week, the energy giant cleared a major hurdle when the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved a multi-year exploration plan in the Chukchi Sea, though it still needs to obtain other federal and state permits.Shell isn't active in the Canadian Arctic these days, but both proponents and critics say the U.S. decision has [Read more]

Groups call on National Energy Board to suspend Energy East application

TORONTO - More than 60 organizations are calling on the National Energy Board to suspend TransCanada's application for the Energy East Pipeline.Groups including Greenpeace Canada, the Council of Canadians and the David Suzuki Foundation said in a letter to the federal pipeline regulator that it should suspend the review process while waiting for new information from the company.TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) is due to update its application for the pipeline in the last quarter of this year with a [Read more]

Trican oilfield services business cuts 2,000 from workforce, suspends dividend

CALGARY - Trican Well Service Ltd. (TSX:TCW) says it has cut 2,000 employees from its North American workforce and will stop paying dividends to its shareholders, citing the difficult current and future market conditions facing its oilfield services business.The Calgary-based company also said it's also seeking relaxed terms on debt agreements and in negotiations to sell its Russian and Kazakhstan pressure pumping business, after receiving an unsolicited offer.The update was included with [Read more]

Encana CEO says NDP appreciates importance of oilpatch and will move cautiously

CALGARY - The CEO of oil and gas giant Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA) said he believes Alberta's incoming NDP government appreciates the importance of a healthy oilpatch."I think you'd almost have to be from another planet not to understand how important oil and gas is to Alberta and Albertans," Doug Suttles said following the company's annual meeting Tuesday. "I think clearly the industry's having a tough time right now."At the meeting, Suttles fielded questions from shareholders about what the NDP [Read more]

B.C. premier says First Nations opposition a bump in the road for LNG

BURNABY, B.C. - B.C. Premier Christy Clark insists the possible rejection by a First Nation of a liquefied-natural-gas terminal is nothing more than a bump in the road for a multibillion-dollar pipeline project.Clark says she believes reaching a negotiated agreement with the 3,700-member Lax Kw'allams First Nation, on whose territory the terminal would be built, is only a matter a time.Pacific NorthWest LNG wants to transport natural gas from the northeast corner of the province to an export [Read more]

US agency approvals Shell’s Arctic drilling plan off Alaska’s northwest coast

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Just days ahead of a planned protest of Royal Dutch Shell's Arctic drilling program in Seattle, the company on Monday cleared a major bureaucratic hurdle to drill off Alaska's northwestern coast.The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the multi-year exploration plan in the Chukchi Sea for Shell after reviewing thousands of comments from the public, Alaska Native organizations and state and federal agencies."We have taken a thoughtful approach to carefully considering [Read more]

Shell Canada pushing back startup of Carmon Creek oilsands project

CALGARY - Shell Canada says its Carmon Creek oilsands project will start up a couple of years later than planned as the company looks to drive down costs.With low crude prices curbing construction activity in northern Alberta, contractors and service providers have been under pressure to sharpen their pencils.Shell is altering the schedule for the first two phases of Carmon Creek so that it can improve its design and retender some contracts, said spokesman Cameron Yost."We are still early enough [Read more]

Saskatchewan group says Energy East pipeline project benefits outweigh risks

SASKATOON - The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities believes that the benefits of the Energy East pipeline project far outweigh the risks.The pipeline would ship oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to the East Coast.Association president Ray Orb says the pipeline would bring taxation revenues to the rural municipalities that have the pipeline on its land, plus it would create more jobs and also bring in revenue for the province.One of the terminals for the project would be based in [Read more]

Northwest Territories minister hopes Mackenzie Gas Project permit doesn’t lapse

CALGARY - The minister in charge of resource development in the Northwest Territories says he hopes the federal permit to build the long-dormant Mackenzie Gas Project will be extended."We don't want to see all the work that's gone into it just disappear and have to be started all over again at some other point in time," David Ramsay said in an interview from Houston, where he got an update from energy heavyweight ExxonMobil Corp.ExxonMobil is the majority owner of Imperial Oil Ltd. (TSX:IMO), [Read more]

B.C. First Nation rejects more than $1B in first stage of vote over LNG proposal

PORT SIMPSON, B.C. - The first of three votes on a natural gas benefit offer worth over $1 billion has been unanimously rejected by a First Nation on British Columbia's northwest coast.All of the more than 180 eligible voters at a meeting in Port Simpson stood up to oppose the plan to build a liquefied-natural-gas pipeline and terminal in their territory, said Lax Kw'alaams band member Malcolm Sampson.Pacific NorthWest LNG, which is mostly owned by Malaysia-based oil and gas giant Petronas, has [Read more]