BOE Report

‘Warriors’ seize journalists’ car, camera equipment at NB shale gas protest site

REXTON, N.B. - The news director for Global News in New Brunswick says a news vehicle and camera were seized by five protesters in Rexton, N.B., Saturday and a reporter threatened. Jim Haskins said journalist Laura Brown was at the site of an ongoing shale gas protest around noon when the protesters confronted another media outlet and seized a vehicle. One of the signs atop a burnt out police car at the anti tracking protest in #rexton. pic.twitter.com/jomodfs8XV— Julia Wong [Read more]

Canadian Natural donates $7M to University of Calgary engineering school

CALGARY - The University of Calgary says it has received its largest corporate donation from one of Canada's biggest oil and gas producers.Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is contributing $7 million towards a previously announced expansion and renovation at the university's Schulich School of Engineering.The total price tag of the upgrade is $158.3 million.Earlier this month, Alberta Premier Alison Redford announced the provincial government would be contributing $145.2 million to the school.The [Read more]

Northern Alberta First Nation gets OK to appeal oilsands approval

EDMONTON - Alberta's highest court is giving an aboriginal group the OK to appeal regulatory approvals of an oilsands project.The Court of Appeal is permitting the Fort McKay First Nation to challenge go-ahead given to Brion Energy's plans for a 50,000-barrel-a-day operation northwest of Fort McMurray.The ruling means the First Nation will be allowed to question the Alberta Energy Regulator's decision not to consider the band's arguments.The band believes its constitutional rights were violated [Read more]

BC minister believes big LNG investment announcements only weeks away

BEIJING - B.C.'s Minister of Natural Gas Development, Rich Coleman, believes firm announcements about offshore investment in the province's fledgling liquefied natural gas industry are scant weeks away.Speaking from Beijing at the mid-point of a three-country trade mission to Asia, Coleman says Chinese and Korean companies are bullish on B.C.'s LNG industry and he's expecting a similar reaction when he meets with business leaders in Malaysia.The minister says he has wrapped up high-level [Read more]

Ontario Police warn of possible hwy closure due to First Nations protest near London, Ont.

STRATHROY, Ont. - Police are warning motorists of potential traffic disruptions around London, Ont., on Saturday, due to a possible demonstration by First Nations protesters.Sgt. Dave Rektor says Highway 402 near Strathroy, west of London, could be closed starting at 10 a.m., if the protesters show up as expected.Rektor says police do not condone the protest and they are holidng discussions with organizers of the protest in hopes of finding a safer location.The demonstration follows one on [Read more]

Alberta China sign framework deal to collaborate on energy

EDMONTON - Alberta and China have signed what they term a landmark deal to increase trade ties and collaboration between the two jurisdictions.Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes says the framework on sustainable energy development, while non-binding, opens doors to get Alberta's oil and gas to the rapidly expanding economy of the Asian nation."It's a direct line into the strategic thinking of the policy makers in the whole of China," Hughes said Friday from Beijing, in a conference call with [Read more]

Violent protest in New Brunswick leads to…more protests!

REXTON, N.B. - The fallout is expected to continue after a protest against shale gas exploration in the eastern New Brunswick community of Rexton turned violent. Sympathy protests were staged across the country Thursday, and more are planned for today. The mayor of the village of Perth-Andover in western New Brunswick says about three dozen protesters from the Tobique First Nation blocked traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway for several hours Thursday before ending their protest at 8 [Read more]

B.C. chief alarmed by anti-shale gas protest

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - The chief of a First Nation in British Columbia's southern Interior says he is alarmed by the violent confrontation between aboriginal protesters and police in New Brunswick.Dozens were arrested and five police cruisers were torched after officers moved on demonstrators opposed shale gas exploration, also known as fracking.Whispering Pines Chief Mike LeBourdais says his Kamloops-area band doesn't want the same problems as Kinder Morgan proceeds with plans to almost triple the [Read more]

Regina refinery celebrates $2.7 billion expansion

REGINA - A $2.7 billion investment into the Federated Co-Ops refinery complex in Regina should help boost how much oil the facility produces each day by about a third.Federated Co-Ops Ltd., which owns and operates the refinery, celebrated the official opening of the massive expansion project on Thursday.The expansion was built to process sweet synthetic crude, which is already partially upgraded in Alberta.Technically, section five at the facility started production last October, but the final [Read more]

Time to ‘seize the moment’ on pipelines, says ‘Seizing Canada’s Moment’ blueprint

OTTAWA - Of all the specific Conservative government promises and priorities cited in this week's speech from the throne, there was only one — building pipelines — that merited an urgent call to "seize the moment.""A lack of key infrastructure threatens to strand these resources at a time when global demand for Canadian energy is soaring," Gov. Gen. David Johnston recited as he laid out the Harper government's mid-mandate policy blueprint."We must seize this moment. The window for gaining access [Read more]