Tag: pipelines

Federal and Nova Scotia governments kill offshore petroleum project in name of ‘clean energy’

Sable Island gas project, now gone.

Federal and Nova Scotia governments kill offshore petroleum project in name of “clean energy”. No more gas development. Don’t even try. But wind? You betcha.

And here’s an analysis of why. It has a lot to do with the fact Nova Scotia can still pay for its hospitals with natural gas money, just natural gas produced in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And it has more to do with Guilbeault announcing a defacto production cap by banning venting and flaring.

Brian Zinchuk: Nova Scotia and federal government put final bullet in the head of still-twitching offshore gas play

And along the topic of the undead, the federal regulator still isn’t done with stretching out the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline. What’s another $200 million per month delay?

As a side note, two years ago I ran into the consultant whose job it was to shut down, abandon and clean up this project. He was the company man looking after the drilling of the first lithium well in Canada, near Torquay, Saskatchewan. I never got around to writing a story about it, dammit. Not enough hours in the day.

And if anyone feels like asking CJME/CKOM why Zinchuk isn’t scheduled to do his regular energy spot the first Wednesday of the month, as he did with Gormley:

Text

1-877-332-8255

 

https://www.cjme.com/

https://www.ckom.com/

Unions and five year plans in “Just Transition” legislation

There are no unions on drilling rigs. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Unions? What unions? The “Just Transition” legislation talks about unions in the oilpatch.

The problem is, except for refining, oil sands and big inch pipeline construction, unions are all but non-existent in the oilpatch. But hey, the legislation also includes five year plans, with the exact implications of what that means. Total transformation of the economy.

Can solar flatline for a whole day? Yep.

Can solar power essentially flatline for a whole day? It did in Alberta on Monday

How is it some people are arguing a pipeline treaty is “dormant?” Would that make other treaties, say those with First Nations, also dormant?

I’ve been writing about the phenomenal growth of the North Dakota Bakken for the better part of 15 years. In 2008, the state produced around 90,000 barrels per day. By 2014, it was something like 1.2 million. Currently it’s around a million or so. A major player was Hess Corporation, which currently produces about 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent in North Dakota. But curiously, none of the supermajor oil companies were involved in North Dakota. Well, that changed, as Hess is being bought by Chevron.

 

Convoy protests in 2019 bore fruit in 2023 with Supreme Court ruling

Oil and agriculture trucks rolled through Regina to rally in 2019 to rally against the carbon tax, Bills C-69 and C-48, and in support of pipelines. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Right side of history: Two protest leaders from 2019 truck convoys react to “No More Pipelines Act” ruling.

But is that going to stop Steven Guilbeault from moving to cap oil and gas emissions? Hell no.

More reaction to Bill C-69 No More Pipelines Act, and another helium producer starts production

Here’s Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s response, verbatim. I like doing these verbatim pieces because it allows the reader to hear the full-throated discussion, without a filter. It’s interesting how she talks about how the $20.6 billion Teck Frontier oilsands mine was killed by the No More Pipelines Act. That’s not chump change. Anyone think they might reconsider it? (That’s a trick question – Teck has since abandoned and sold off its oilsands interests – for obvious reasons.)

Also, after nearly three years of work since it drilled its first well near Climax, Saskatchewan, Royal Helium has entered into production with its first helium facility near Brooks, Alberta. This is transformational for the company, as it turns Royal from an explorer with no revenue to a helium producer, with revenue. Indeed, its production is already locked up in sales, so strong is the demand. And expect their next focus to likely be in Saskatchewan.

I’ll have another significant helium story posted for Tuesday morning. Exciting times, this.

Scope 3 emissions? What on earth is that?

Dr. Tammy Nemeth has been warning about this in her recent podcasts, and now the head of the TSX is doing the same. Small-cap companies not ready for climate disclosure rules: TMX Group CEO. Start counting those Scope 3 emissions, folks.

Along those lines, if they can’t protest you to extinction, they’ll litigate you. Greenpeace files securities complaint against Suncor over climate risk disclosures. 

If I take part in #protests, can I claim some sort of journalist protection, too? RCMP dispute photojournalist’s account of arrest while covering pipeline protest  

Hey, wasn’t this the guy behind the Kesytone Pipeline projects in the first place? TC Energy names former CEO Hal Kvisle as chair of new liquids pipeline spinoff.

And from the day before, Exxon buys Pioneer Natural for $59.5 billion. And here’s what it could mean for Canada. Isn’t that something like three times Canada’s entire defence budget?

Oh, and a University of Calgary prof is taking tactics out of a U of R prof’s handbook (I don’t think it’s the Communist Manifesto, but I could be wrong). Academic report calls for public inquiry into Alberta Energy Regulator. (The U of R prof sued her own university a while back, and yet is still employed.)

In Pipeline Online’s neverending quest to let the public know exactly what our federal government & Steven Guilbeault is telling us about climate change, here is a verbatim, unfiltered press release from Oct. 12 regarding the carbon tax in New Brunswick.

And our favourite minister, Steven Guilbeault, announced “Canada’s Circular Economy month in October.” Except instead of doing so on the 1st of the month, he did it on the 12. Maybe circular months have no beginning, no end. Think of Groundhog Day, with Steven Guilbeault telling us every day, forever, how we are horrible people…

Enbridge’s CEO has a lot to say about Canada’s lack of LNG development

It’s almost as if he’s making a business case for LNG. Imagine that. You know, the same thing the prime minister said there was no business case for? This is the verbatim speech he gave on Friday in Toronto.

Energy Transition Podcast Ep. 84: Coal is back – in fact, it was never gone.

Here’s something new – the Kindersley area took over half the dollars in the Crown petroleum right land sale last week. That’s highly unusual.

And, of course the Just about but not quite complete TMX pipeline will desecrate a sacred site.

A farmer, a pump shop manager and a superintendent walk into a liquor store …

Getting caught up on some energy items from Pipeline Online:

Letter to the editor on why activity levels are so low in the Saskatchewan oilpatch

“How low?” you ask. Just 29 drilling rigs working in Saskatchewan Oct. 3 (10 years ago, that number would have been around 90. During the depths of the downturn, it would have been 40-50.)

Tammy Nemeth’s podcast talks about net-zero red tape for small and medium enterprises in Canada. You think you have paperwork now…

Enbridge’s CEO had a lot to say this week:

Enbridge CEO op-ed on delivering LNG to global markets, reducing global CO2 emissions and supporting energy security. (He did a long speech, which I’ll be posting verbatim, if I have a chance).

Enbridge CEO calls for national Indigenous loan guarantee program so they can buy into energy projects, like pipelines.

And what do we need pipelines for when rail works so well? Except for when it doesn’t. Undetected broken rail causes fiery crude-by-rail derailment.

And for something completely different: A farmer, a pump shop manager and a superintendent walk into a liquor store … and buy it. No joke.

Forget a northern energy corridor to Hudson Bay – just do it within Manitoba instead

There’s an election today in Manitoba, so all bets are off if the NDP forms government. But on the off chance that the Conservatives hold power, here goes. The conservative premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been talking about building a new port at Port Nelson, Manitoba, on Hudson Bay. They would build a corridor of pipelines running oil and natural gas to said port, as well as rail, allowing potash exports. Maybe grain, too?  And Power from Manitoba could run west. Anyhow, here’s an alternative way to look at it, probably for a lot cheaper than building over 1,000 km of pipeline through some of the hardest rock on the planet.

And on the topic of energy, any business in Saskatchewan who wants to get in on building multi-billion dollar nuclear reactors should get someone down to Regina Wednesday morning to attend this conference.

And the Energy Transition Podcast talks about France’s Macron going full Trudeau.

And the Coastal GasLink Pipeline is now 98 per cent complete.

Crown corporation Trans Mountain wants a blank cheque from shippers for pipeline cost overruns

Cenovus calls Trans Mountain’s desire for a blank cheque on cost overruns “commercially absurd” It turns out when you run a project something like 4 to 6 times the original budget (depending on what you consider the start and the original budget) the people expected to pay for it might balk a bit. In the letter quoted in the story, Cenovus basically tells Trans Mountain to, well, you figure it out.

Poilievre will push LNG, SMRs, hydro dams and continued oil production

Pierre Poilievre. Screenshot from YouTube

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took some time to speak about energy during his keynote speech to the Conservative national policy convention in Quebec City on Sept. 8. In those comments, he spoke about natural liquefaction extensively, as well as small modular reactors, hydroelectricity, tidal power and oil production. He mentioned more wind power, but did not speak of solar power generation. He also referred to producing minerals for electrification in Canada instead of China. This was an oblique reference to lithium, without actually mentioning lithium.

Steven Guilbeault. Screenshot from CPAC

 

If you didn’t catch it – Steven Guilbeault crashed the Conservative policy convention in Quebec City. He wondered if Pierre Poilievre believed in climate change. Here’s some of what he had to say.

Alberta’s E3 Lithium might be first out of the gate with a pilot lithium plant, but several are in the works for Saskatchewan. And E3’s stated lithium concentration is 74.5 mg/L, while at Coleville, SK, Grounded Lithium also reports 74 mg/L. Arizona Lithium says they have up to 172 mg/L at Torquay. Hub City Lithium says it has concentrations of up to 259 mg/L at Viewfield (Stoughton). From Canadian Press: Alberta enters global lithium race with opening of first extraction pilot project.

A geologist I know once told me “All things being equal, Alberta has better rocks (than Saskatchewan).” Perhaps that’s true for oil, but it could be the inverse for lithium. Time will tell.

And from the Associated Press – Apparently the Germans figure they can get rid of fossil fuel heating. This, in a nation that doesn’t get much sun or wind, but had been building solar and wind facilities like crazy while shutting down all its nuclear plants. To quote C-3P0, “This is madness!”

 

TC Energy is dumping Keystone Pipeline in spinoff

Keystone XL pipe, in 2011, that was never used. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

 

TC Energy, which I still think of as TranCanada, from back when I built pipelines for them, is spinning off its oil pipelines, which is principally the Keystone system.

I was searching for the best metaphor. “Like hot garbage,” kept coming to mind. I settled on dumping an ex-wife. My column on this: TC Energy dumping Keystone Pipeline like a despised, soon-to-be-ex-wife. The Keystone name is so verboten, it is barely mentioned in the press release or slide deck.

This is entirely because the anti-pipeline, anti-oil movement won on Keystone XL and Energy East. Can’tada and BANANAS USA won, and this is the result. (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone, Seriously, U Stup1d A@#$#@#)

And who’s paying for that $9 billion stake?

The cost of the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline has shot up another 44%, to $30.9 billion. Project managers say it’ll be finished this year (from what I hear, not so much). And yet Indigenous groups are seeking a 30% stake in the project. Where’s that money coming from?

And on the topic of pipelines, it turns out Repsol said it would be too much money to pipeline natural gas from Western Canada to Saint John, New Brunswick, modify an existing LNG import terminal to export, and ship LNG to Europe. Would that be because the pipeline would have to go through Quebec, by chance? So there really wasn’t a business case, or there wasn’t a business case because of a.) Quebec and b.) the federal government? Would this have worked under a Harper or Poilievre government?

Take out the Trash Day – Trans Mountain Expansion edition

So, if you didn’t see this news come out on Friday, because all horrible news is released on Friday, the Trans Mountain Pipeline just went up something like 44 per cent in cost. That’ll be paid for by us, by the way. The cost is now $30.9 billion. But wait! In 2013, Kinder Morgan figured they could build it for $6.8 billion. The current cost is only 4.5x what Kinder Morgan had planned.

Is it any wonder why ExxonMobil is walking away from longstanding, but never used offshore oil and gas leases off the BC coast? Any guesses why a company would walk away from a major oil and gas project in BC?

By the way, this clip from the first season of The West Wing is the absolute best nugget of political knowledge you can sum up in one minute (the first minute of this clip). Fridays are “Take out the Trash Day.”

A similar thing happened the Friday of the Family Day long weekend, when the feds released their just transition plan. Watch for upcoming stories on that.

$40 billion in oilpatch CAPEX sounds great for 2023, until you realize it is half of 2014

Oilwell battery construction in southeast Saskatchewan, fall of 2022. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Back in the lofty, pre-Trudeau government days of 2014, back when oil was booming, pipelines were planned to east and west coasts, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were swimming in money, around $81 billion was spent in capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the Canadian petroleum industry. On Wednesday, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) forecast CAPEX of $40 billion, which is just about double the disaster year of 2020, but half of 2014. And that’s before #justinflation. What would it be if we had a federal government supportive of the industry, instead of trying to make it disappear?

Curiously, Enbridge announced on the same day its spending a lot of money in Texas, including a port facility for Houston. Funny how it’s not talking about Northern Gateway to Kitimat, or Churchill, or even Valdez, Alaska? Wonder why?

And here’s Brian Zinchuk’s column analyzing all this.

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