BOE Report

Prentice: Keystone XL a "distraction"

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CALGARY - Former Conservative cabinet minister Jim Prentice is urging Canada and the United States to look beyond the contentious and high-profile Keystone XL oil pipeline when it comes to their trade relationship.Prentice — who handled the environment and industry files during his time in government — says the two countries have been "preoccupied by a dispute over a single pipeline."Prentice, now a senior executive at CIBC (TSX:CM), says "we must move beyond this distraction" and calls for a [Read more]

Officials hope to tackle train fire in New Brunswick after removing several cars

PLASTER ROCK, N.B. - Officials said they hoped to start Friday tackling the fire that continues to burn on several train cars days after they derailed in New Brunswick, sparking a blaze fuelled by liquefied petroleum gas and crude oil on board. CN (TSX:CNR) spokesman Jim Feeny said crews worked through the night and removed about six box and crude cars to allow firefighters to get closer to the site of the blaze in Wapske (Wob-ski), near Plaster Rock in northwestern New Brunswick. "Before [Read more]

Oil falls to 8-month low of US$91.66

NEW YORK - The price of oil closed at the lowest level in eight months Thursday as traders worried about bulging supplies of crude and falling demand for gasoline.Meanwhile, natural gas prices fell five per cent on forecasts for warmer than normal weather in the coming weeks.Benchmark West Texass Intermediate crude for February delivery fell 67 cents to close at US$91.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price did rise back above $92 in electronic trading after the close, perhaps [Read more]

Feds quietly adopt new rail industry rules

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OTTAWA - Transport Canada quietly approved new safety rules drafted by the railway industry on Boxing Day just as an emergency directive issued in the wake of last summer's Lac-Megantic disaster was set to expire.The federal department also reissued a new emergency directive on Jan. 1, again without public notification, covering those rail companies that are not part of the Railway Association of Canada.Transport Minister Lisa Raitt issued the emergency directive last July to address some of the [Read more]

Canadian Natural to keep Montney shale assets

CALGARY - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ) has decided to keep the Montney shale gas assets that it put on the market early last year. The Calgary-based oil, gas and oilsands producer says it received "a number of expressions of interest" for the assets but none was sufficient to merit a deal at this time. CNQ announced in March it was looking for buyers or partners for the assets, which are in a part of northeastern British Columbia that contains huge reserves of natural gas [Read more]

Latest derailment and fire fans safety concerns posed by oil by rail

OTTAWA - Yet another railway fire involving crude oil has prompted the chief executive officer of CN Rail to suggest that long-overdue regulatory changes to the tank cars used to transport dangerous goods will be introduced soon.What is being called a controlled burn had been raging for more than 18 hours in northwestern New Brunswick late Wednesday after 17 cars on a CN train — some carrying propane, others crude oil — derailed and caught fire.It is the fifth significant railway accident in [Read more]

European Union makes carbon emitting more expensive

BRUSSELS - It will become more expensive for businesses in the European Union to burn fossil fuels this year after the 28-country bloc decided Wednesday to beef up its carbon trading system. The agreement ended a year of bickering over how to amend what is Europe's prime tool in the fight against climate change and the world's biggest emission trading system. Under the cap-and-trade scheme, companies pay per ton of carbon dioxide they release into the atmosphere, with the pollution [Read more]

Train with oil, gas derails in New Brunswick

PLASTER ROCK, N.B. - A CN freight train carrying crude oil and propane derailed Tuesday night in a sparsely populated region of northwestern New Brunswick, forcing the evacuation of about two dozen homes after a fire that the rail company described as "significant." CN spokesman Jim Feeny said 16 cars derailed near the village of Plaster Rock and of those, 15 are toward the end of the train and in the area of the fire. Four are carrying propane and another four are carrying crude oil, Feeny [Read more]

American oil companies call for end to export ban

NEW YORK - American oil companies have not been allowed to export crude for 40 years, but the industry wants to change that, even though the U.S. still consumes far more oil than it produces. A surprising surge in domestic production of light, sweet crude — a particular type of oil that foreign refiners covet — has triggered growing calls to lift the restrictions, which were put in place after the Arab oil embargo of 1973. But the idea is touching a nerve that remains raw four decades [Read more]

Kitimat residents to vote on Northern Gateway

KITIMAT, B.C. - District of Kitimat Council voted Monday night to hold a plebiscite to exactly determine the thoughts of the North Coast community regarding Enbridge Northern Gateway project. District council and staff will decide the actual question for voters and the date for the non-binding, referendum-style vote in the coming weeks. The council decision follows the Dec. 19 release of the Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel decision that approved the pipeline and tanker project carrying [Read more]