BOE Report

Saskatchewan courts oil and gas investment amid Alberta royalty ruckus

CALGARY - If energy companies are skittish about investing in Alberta, they're welcome to set up shop next door, Saskatchewan's economy minister said Wednesday.Bill Boyd said he's been watching the political debate in neighbouring Alberta over the newly elected NDP government's plans to review oil and gas royalties.Boyd said he's been hearing "a fair bit of concern" from companies at the Global Petroleum Show, a massive exhibition in Calgary this week with some 50,000 attendees from around the [Read more]

National Energy Board chair to make safety inspection reports public

VANCOUVER - The chairman of the National Energy Board is vowing to make pipeline inspection reports public in his latest effort to increase transparency at the embattled regulator.Peter Watson said the reports will be published online beginning in September, in order to inform the public that the board continues to monitor pipelines even after they are built."If a project is constructed like the existing Trans Mountain line, we have all these responsibilities to ensure its safety on an ongoing [Read more]

AltaGas commits to LNG terminal by 2018, challenges international report

CALGARY - The CEO of AltaGas Ltd. says his company is on track to building Canada's first liquefied natural gas export terminal by 2018, challenging an international report that said no such facility will be built in the country by 2020. "We think we'll prove them wrong in this decade," David Cornhill said Monday in an interview following a report last week by the International Energy Agency. Cornhill said the company is making progress on plans for the Douglas Channel LNG terminal in [Read more]

CAPP president: Technology key to meeting G7 climate change goals

CALGARY - A lot can change in 85 years.A G7 goal to shift to a no-carbon economy over the course of this century isn't spooking Canada's biggest oil and natural gas industry group.Tim McMillan, head of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said technology will be key.Advancements that "wouldn't have been conceivable" a century ago are commonplace today, he said."When a country or a world puts its mind to something it can be pretty powerful."But environmental groups had a different [Read more]

G7 puts Canada on the spot, calls for low emissions in energy sector

SCHLOSS ELMAU, Germany - Canada's energy sector will have to transform itself to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the long term, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday.He was commenting at the end of the G7 leaders' summit which called on its members to put their energy sectors on a low-carbon footing by 2050, a move with serious implications for Canada's greenhouse-gas-emitting oilsands.German Chancellor Angela Merkel fell short of her goal of pushing her fellow leaders to a broad, [Read more]

Cenovus set to restart production at Foster Creek oilsands project by Monday

CALGARY - Cenovus Energy says it expects to restart production at its Foster Creek oilsands operation by Monday.The 135,000-barrel-a-day facility, which is jointly owned by ConocoPhillips, has been offline since May 23 because of a large wildfire in the area.Cenovus Energy says it will take several days to return to full production, but it expects camps to be fully operational at the start of next week.On June 3, Canadian Natural Resources said production was ramping back up at its Kirby South [Read more]

Kinder Morgan says $100 million investment will protect against oil spills

BURNABY, B.C. - Kinder Morgan is pledging to protect against any threat of oil spills caused by its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, as opposition to the project mounts in British Columbia.The energy-shipping giant showed off its marine and storage terminals in Burnaby, B.C., on Thursday, detailing new safety measures it is promising to introduce if the $5.4-billion expansion is approved.Senior director of marine development Michael Davies said Western Canada Marine Response Corp., the agency [Read more]

Saskatchewan’s Wall pitches his province over Alberta for royalty stability

WEYBURN, Sask. - Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is using the NDP's pending royalty review in Alberta to pitch his province to the oil industry.In a speech to an industry audience in Weyburn this week, Wall promised his government has no plans to review the rates it charges oil companies in Saskatchewan.With oil prices currently hovering around US$60 a barrel, the industry doesn't need any instability, Wall said."We like where royalties are at," he told reporters covering his address at the [Read more]

Ads for pipeline company Enbridge yanked from screens in Tim Hortons locations

CALGARY - Tim Hortons has brewed up controversy for its decision to yank ads by pipeline giant Enbridge from its in-store screens.On Thursday morning, the coffee-and-doughnut purveyor responded to complaints about the ads on Twitter, telling individual users: "We value your feedback and the Enbridge advertisements are no longer airing on 'Tims TV.'"But the tempest in a Timbit only grew as oil industry supporters lashed out against the move.The top-trending Twitter hashtag on Thursday afternoon [Read more]

Canadian LNG export prospects have ‘darkened,’ international report says

CALGARY - The outlook for Canada's liquefied natural gas industry over the next five years has "darkened," said a report released Thursday that casts clouds over British Columbia's LNG ambitions.The report by the International Energy Agency predicts Canada won't have any LNG export projects online by 2020, which would go against B.C.'s goal of having three LNG plants in operation by that time.The B.C. government has been betting big on LNG for economic growth. It has said it expects more than [Read more]