BOE Report

Transport Canada proposes tougher protections for rail tanker cars

OTTAWA - Proposed new federal regulations will give shippers until 2025 to upgrade rail tank cars to a higher safety standard, a transition that would come almost 30 years after serious deficiencies in the fleet were first identified —— and as oil-by-rail accidents continue to pile up.The safety upgrade would build on standards voluntarily adopted by the industry in 2011 and require shippers to make tank cars more resistant to punctures and valve failures in the case of derailment or [Read more]

Penn West to reduce first-quarter dividend further than previously announced

CALGARY - Penn West Petroleum Ltd. is cutting its quarterly dividend to a penny per share and seeking some breathing room for its debt as low oil prices continue to bite.Penn West (TSX:PWT) chief financial officer David Dyck also said the company has "proactively been in negotiations" with its lenders and debt holders to ensure financial flexibility."In spite of the progress we have made on debt reduction, we are still carrying too much debt on our balance sheet. And if oil prices continue to [Read more]

Businesses expect a slower Stampede this year as oilpatch pulls back

CALGARY - This was supposed to be the year that the "ranch" would be booked up again for the Calgary Stampede — but then oil prices fell by more than half.Caterer Paddy Sorrenti said by early December, a full roster of clients had confirmed they wanted to use the site — a cowboyed up parking lot in the downtown core where pancakes are flipped and beer is pouredBut with three and a half months to go to Stampede, Sorrenti says he's in "limbo." He figures six of the 10 events that had been booked [Read more]

Obama: Canadian oil extraction is ‘extraordinarily dirty’

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama has some less-than-laudatory words for Canada's oil industry in a new example of his increasingly critical take on the oilsands.He was asked about the Keystone XL pipeline during a town-hall session Friday — and he launched into an explanation of why so many environmentalists oppose it."The way that you get oil out in Canada is an extraordinarily dirty way of extracting oil," Obama said during the event at a South Carolina college. "Obviously," he added, [Read more]

ExxonMobil, Murphy Oil awarded $17 million in damages from Canadian government

HALIFAX - An international tribunal has ordered the government of Canada to pay more than $17 million in damages to two oil companies following a breach of North American Free Trade Agreement regulations.A spokeswoman for Natural Resources Canada says in an email the Feb. 20 decision awarded $13.9 million plus interest to ExxonMobil and $3.4 million plus interest to Murphy Oil.Michelle Aron says Ottawa is reviewing the decision and considering its options in consultation with the government of [Read more]

Crude-by-rail exports dip in fourth quarter: National Energy Board

CALGARY - Canada's crude-by-rail exports dropped in the final three months of last year as oil prices shrivelled, according to new data from the National Energy Board. During the fourth quarter, about 173,000 barrels of oil moved south of the border on trains every day, around five per cent less than the third quarter, when the figure was about 182,000 barrels a day.But that's still 16 per cent higher than the 149,000 barrels a day that moved during the last three months of 2013.Crude prices [Read more]

Canadian Natural Resouces triples Q4 profit to $1.2 billion

CALGARY - The president of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ) says all options are on the table when it comes to squeezing more value out of its Alberta royalty acreage, but keeping the status quo is not at the top of the list.The Calgary-based oil and gas giant could spin off the lands into a new publicly traded company or sell them outright. It hopes to make a move this year, company executives said on a conference call Thursday. Canadian Natural makes money off the properties by [Read more]

Crews respond to small pipeline blast east of Edmonton, no injuries

FORT SASKATCHEWAN, Alta. - RCMP have reopened Highway 15 east of Edmonton following a small pipeline breach and explosion in an industrial area.Fort Saskatchewan fire chief James Clark says no one was hurt in the blast that happened just before noon Wednesday.He says a track hoe digging into the ground struck a hydrogen gas line, which triggered a small explosion and fire.Crews diverted traffic away from the area of the gas leak as a safety precaution for a few hours.Clark says there are lots of [Read more]

Standing pat: Bank of Canada keeps its trendsetting interest rate at 0.75%

OTTAWA - The Bank of Canada maintained its key interest rate Wednesday as it credited global economic conditions and its January cut for helping the country weather the bruising oil slump.The central bank's latest policy announcement, which kept the overnight rate target at 0.75 per cent, also contained a slightly sunnier outlook, leaving many analysts with the impression there won't be any other reductions any time soon.It was the bank's first policy decision since January when governor [Read more]

Reports of B.C. LNG’s demise greatly exaggerated, industry alliance boss says

CALGARY - The head of the B.C. LNG Alliance says it's not a matter of if, but when, the province becomes a major global LNG player and he wouldn't be surprised to see at least one project get the green light this year.David Keane took on the industry's naysayers at a Calgary energy conference on Tuesday. "To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of B.C. LNG's death have been greatly exaggerated," he said. "To the contrary, we are not alarmed by the present volatility in the energy market."High [Read more]