Headlines

CALGARY - The Alberta government says it will leave its oil production quotas unchanged in January to deal with the lingering consequences after oil shipping was delayed by the Canadian National Railway Co. strike and the temporary shutdown of the Keystone pipeline following a leak in North Dakota. A spokesman for Energy Minister Sonya Savage says producers were informed Tuesday that the production limit for January will remain at 3.81 million barrels per day, the same as December, after [Read more]

CALGARY - The former executive director of the International Energy Agency says the biggest risk to Canada's nascent LNG industry is that it will be "too late" to join in a massive LNG expansion surge sweeping the globe. Maria van der Hoeven, a retired Dutch politician and leader of the IEA from 2011 to 2015, says there's time for Canada to compete in a field led by players from the Middle East, Australia, Russia and, increasingly, the United States. She says the question is whether Canada [Read more]

Oil slipped on Wednesday after an industry report showed a surprise build-up in U.S. crude inventories, but optimism surrounding the signing of the first phase of a U.S.-China trade deal prevented a bigger slide in prices. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 12 cents, or 0.21%, to $58.29 per barrel. Brent crude futures dropped 9 cents, or 0.14%, to $64.18 a barrel. Wednesday's decline reversed two days of gains, with WTI climbing 1.1% through Tuesday and Brent gaining [Read more]

Each week, XI Technologies scans its unique combination of enhanced industry data to provide trends and insights that have value for professionals doing business in the WCSB. If you'd like to receive our Wednesday Word to the Wise in your inbox, subscribe here.  As asset retirement obligations have begun to get more attention from producers, it’s understandable for producers to get discouraged when looking at their long-term budgeting. It’s not uncommon for a producer to look at their [Read more]