Alberta looks to use hydrogen to fuel expansion of its oil sands without increasing emissions, even as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promises strong action against climate change, officials with the two governments said. Alberta will announce no later than October a strategy to develop "blue hydrogen" as a cleaner alternative to using natural gas to extract crude at steam-driven oil sands sites, Associate Minister of Natural Gas Dale Nally told Reuters in an interview. Deploying cleaner [Read more]
Headlines
Oil falls 1% on lacklustre demand, set for biggest weekly drop since June
Oil futures slipped 1% on Friday, with prices on both sides of the Atlantic heading for their biggest weekly drops since June, as lacklustre demand and ample fuel supplies offset support from a weaker dollar. U.S. West Texas Intermediate was at $40.80 a barrel, down 51 cents and set for its first weekly drop in five weeks. Brent crude fell 44 cents to $43.63 a barrel. The volume of crude arriving in China, the world's largest crude importer, is set to slow in September after rising [Read more]
Canadian midstream and producers – “We’re in this together”
The challenges facing Canadian oil and gas companies are daunting - collapsed oil prices & demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, regulatory uncertainty, Bill C-69, asset write-downs and credit crunch/liquidity challenges to mention some. For E&P companies carrying too much debt, despite calls for help with liquidity, the writing may be on the wall. In a recent interview with The BOE Report, Rick Peterson of Peterson Capital commented: “It’s going to be tough and right now I think there [Read more]
Obsidian Energy announces extension to our syndicated credit facility
CALGARY, AB - OBSIDIAN ENERGY LTD. (TSX: OBE) (OTCQX: OBELF) ("Obsidian Energy", the "Company", "we", "us" or "our") announces the extension of our syndicated credit facility to October 31, 2020. The syndicated credit facility has an underlying borrowing base of $550 million and amount available to be drawn of $450 million which remains unchanged. Under the agreement, the syndicated credit facility continues to be available on a revolving basis until October 31, 2020, subject to further [Read more]
Heavy discount hits narrowest level since mid-July
Canadian heavy crude's discount versus West Texas Intermediate (WTI) narrowed on Thursday the most since mid-July, with production halted from a major oil sands site due to a pipeline leak. Western Canada Select (WCS) heavy blend crude for October delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, traded at $8.95 per barrel below WTI, according to NE2 Canada Inc. It settled the previous day at $9.35 under. The differential moved as narrow as $7.50. An outage on part of the Polaris diluent pipeline is the [Read more]
U.S. natgas futures rebound on warmer weather view
U.S. natural gas futures rose on Thursday as the weather forecasts turned slightly warmer, and as a federal report that was mostly in line with estimates still showed a below-normal storage build. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said U.S. utilities injected 35 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage in the week ended Aug. 28. That was in line with analysts estimates in a Reuters poll of an injection of 34 billion cubic feet (bcf), and compared with an increase of 77 [Read more]
Canadian oil firms: Better days ahead, says Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs says favourable environment for growth exists for Canadian oil firms even though they are currently out of favour with investors Adds group is currently facing ire of investors due to environmental concerns, pipeline constraints, leverage levels and poor returns on capital However, still sees conducive environment for stock picking with "healthy" intra-sector share price performance likely ahead Believes Canadian oil firms offer higher levels of free cash flow generation, [Read more]
Burgess Creek Exploration Inc. – Fee title & royalty divestiture
Burgess Creek Exploration Inc. (“Burgess Creek” or the “Company”) has engaged Sayer Energy Advisors to assist it with the sale of its Gross Overriding Royalty (“GOR”) interests as well as its Fee Title interests (“Fee Title”) in a number of areas of southeastern Saskatchewan (the “Properties”). The Properties include 1,617 net acres of Fee Title land as well as additional 6,208 net GOR acres. The Fee Title lands are located in the following designated pool areas: Northgate (880 net [Read more]
Oil prices at one-month low on demand worries
Oil prices extended losses on Thursday, falling by more than 2% to their lowest point since early August, as worries about weaker U.S. gasoline demand and a sluggish economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic dented sentiment. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 58 cents, or 1.32%, at $41.00 a barrel. Brent crude fell 63 cents, or 1.37%, to $43.76 a barrel by 1118 GMT. Both benchmarks fell more than 2% on Wednesday. U.S. gasoline demand last week fell to [Read more]
New biocide for the Canadian fracturing market
Bacterial control is vital in the oil and gas market - microbes can have a profound impact on the integrity of a well. With high resource costs and time invested in the production of oil and gas it is important to maintain integrity by scale control, corrosion control, and bacterial control. Unlike other water components, bacterial content is dynamic, the microbes are alive, and they multiply. The best method of control is a proactive approach which mitigates the number of [Read more]