BOE Report

Woman chains herself to Shell oil drilling support ship in bay north of Seattle

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - A woman has chained herself to the Arctic Challenger, a support ship for Royal Dutch Shell's exploratory oil drilling plans, Bellingham police said.KCPQ-TV said the ship is anchored in Bellingham Bay, north of Seattle.A police spokesman said officers talked to the ship, the port and the woman and won't be trying to remove her. The ship won't leave for several days.Earlier, an official with Washington state's Department of Natural Resources said activists protesting Shell's [Read more]

Former Alberta finance minister says give new NDP government time to learn

CALGARY - A former Alberta finance minister is urging people to give the new NDP government time to learn the ropes.Jim Dinning, who was a Calgary MLA in the 90s, says incoming Premier Rachel Notley and her 52 MLAs will make smarter decisions if they get time.He also is urging Notley to look at the big picture when it comes to the environment, energy and the economy.Dinning says it's up to the new government to have difficult conversations on these topics, and says leaders create followers.He [Read more]

CEO of Suncor Energy says tougher action on climate change is needed

CALGARY - Calls for tougher carbon pricing are coming from what may, on the surface, seem like an unlikely source: Calgary business leaders, including the boss of Canada's biggest oilsands player."Climate change is happening," Suncor Energy CEO Steve Williams said in a speech Friday. "Doing nothing is not an option we can choose."Williams made his remarks at an event hosted by Canada's Ecofiscal Commission, a group focused on environmental and economic policy."We're trying to move Canada toward [Read more]

Cheaper oil isn’t such a benefit for US economy anymore as pullbacks in drilling cause damage

WASHINGTON - If there was one thing most economists agreed on at the start of the year, it was this: Plunging oil prices would boost the U.S. economy.It hasn't worked out that way.The economy is thought to have shrunk in the January-March quarter and may barely grow for the first half of 2015 — thanks in part to sharp cuts in energy drilling. And despite their savings at the gas pump, consumers have slowed rather than increased their spending.At $2.71 a gallon, the average price of gas [Read more]

B.C., Petronas sign deal toward proposed LNG project in province’s northwest

VICTORIA - Plans to build a $36-billion liquefied natural gas export facility on British Columbia's northwest coast moved forward Wednesday, although there's no green light yet signalling the project's official start. The B.C. government and Malaysian energy giant Petronas signed a memorandum of understanding that could lead to a project-development agreement and eventually the construction of an LNG plant at Lelu Island near Prince Rupert.Premier Christy Clark said once Petronas-controlled [Read more]

Rough ride: A look at Canada’s oil sector before and after the collapse

CALGARY - It's been a rough ride for Canada's oil sector since the middle of last year.In June 2014, the U.S. benchmark crude price averaged US$105.79 a barrel. By January of this year, it had shrivelled to just US$47.22 — a drop of about 55 per cent.West Texas Intermediate crude has since been climbing closer to US$60, but executives in the oilpatch aren't holding out hope for sustained recovery just yet.Crude prices fell steadily throughout the second half of 2014 amid burgeoning North [Read more]

Nova Scotia environment minister approves liquefied natural gas project

POINT TUPPER, N.S. - A proposed liquefied natural gas export facility in Cape Breton has received its environmental approval from the Nova Scotia government.The Environment Department says Bear Head LNG Corp. must address 32 terms and conditions to control greenhouse-gas emissions and to reduce impacts on wildlife, water and wetlands at the site near Port Hawkesbury.The company, a subsidiary of Australia-based Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd., must also create a consulting committee that includes [Read more]

Up to 185,000 jobs could be lost in oil and gas industry this year, study says

CALGARY - Shrinking budgets in the oil and gas industry could lead to as many as 185,000 direct and indirect job losses in Canada this year, according to a new study by an industry group.The report, released Tuesday by the labour market division of Enform, says the potential losses would represent a 25 per cent drop in the number of jobs the sector supports and are the result of major budget cuts in the oilpatch.The industry is expected to spend $94 billion this year, down from $125 billion last [Read more]

Arctic drilling foes try to stop work on Shell rig; city issues violation notice

SEATTLE - Neither a protest by hundreds of demonstrators nor a permit violation notice from the city will halt Royal Dutch Shell's use of a Seattle seaport terminal as it prepares for exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, spokesmen say.The violation notice issued Monday by the Seattle Department of Planning and Development said use of Terminal 5 by a massive floating drill rig was in violation of the site's permitted use as a cargo terminal. The 400-foot Polar Pioneer and its support tug [Read more]

US oil and natural gas rig count drops by 6 to 888; down 6 in Texas

HOUSTON - Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. declined by six this week to 888.Houston-based Baker Hughes said Friday that 660 rigs were seeking oil and 223 explored for natural gas. Five were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, 1,861 rigs were active.Among major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas lost six rigs, Wyoming declined by two and Alaska, Arkansas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania each lost one.Kansas gained [Read more]