BOE Report

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]

Oil rises as extreme cold temps grip U.S.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The price of oil rose Tuesday, with unusually cold weather in the U.S. expected to fuel demand. Benchmark U.S. oil for February delivery was up 27 cents to US$93.70 a barrel at mid-afternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 53 cents to settle at $93.43 a barrel on Monday. Brent crude, used to set prices for international varieties of crude, rose 66 cents to $107.39 in London. Crude prices were [Read more]

Lubicon First Nation appeals drilling injunction

CALGARY - A First Nation is appealing a court injunction against a blockade of an energy company's drilling site in northern Alberta.The Lubicon Lake Nation says the injunction granted to PennWest Petroleum Ltd. (TSX:PWT) last month gives the company unfettered access to an oil hydraulic fracturing site in the heart of its traditional territory.In its appeal, the Lubicon Lake Nation says it will raise constitutional issues about aboriginal rights that it says the court failed to consider when [Read more]

Harper: Obama ‘punted’ Keystone XL decision, confident pipeline will be built

VANCOUVER - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says U.S. President Barack Obama has "punted" a decision on the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, but he's still confident the long-delayed $5.4 billion project will eventually be built. Harper made his remarks during a question-and-answer session with Vancouver Board of Trade CEO Iain Black. When Black launched into one question by saying Obama had rejected the pipeline, Harper interjected. "No, he's punted," the prime minister said of [Read more]

Joint B.C.-Alberta report looks at whether oil-by-rail a viable option

VANCOUVER - A task force report has been handed in to the British Columbia and Alberta governments that examines the idea of transporting oilsands' crude via rail if proposed pipelines don't get the green light, government documents show. It's an idea the environmental group ForestEthics calls "underhanded." It's a "backdoor way for industry to bring tankers to the coast without the same sort of public oversight or public process that we’ve had around the Enbridge pipeline or would have [Read more]