Category: Drill, Baby, Drill

Coulda Had A Pipeline

Red Sea is now largely closed to traffic. That’s 8.8 million bpd of daily oil transit, and nearly 380 million tons of daily cargo transit. Global traffic now will be rerouted around Cape of Good Hope, adding 40% to voyage distance (and even more to cost)

BP, Evergreen, Euronav Halt Sailings Through Chaotic Red Sea As Insurers Demand ‘War Risk Coverage’

Suez update: 46 container ships now have diverted around the Cape of Good Hope rather than transiting the Red Sea.

John Konrad is a “former drillship captain, author of Fire On The Horizon“.

I’m a merchant ship Captain who runs a large news company for commercial shipping.

Five years ago I had zero interest in Naval or military affairs but this guy @mercoglianos just kept calling me telling me shipping is in BIG trouble if the US Navy keeps ignoring the concerns of the security shipping industry.

I’ll be completely honest, I ignored him for years. We had the strongest Navy on earth, and nobody was close. How could this be that big of a concern?

I wasn’t completely oblivious. I’ve listened to @cdrsalamander’s podcast every week for over a decade. He gave similar warnings.

I even wrote early articles about China’s islands building campaigns and the US Merchant Marines’s aging sealift fleet. But those were mostly isolated concerns.

But Sal did not stop calling. Slowly I started putting in a heavy amount of work into naval and military research… and unfortunately I found that Sal was .

Something to keep an eye on.

Enbridge sells one of its babies

Enbridge sells Alliance Pipeline, Aux Sable to Pembina Pipeline

This is part of a continuing trend of Enbridge selling assets to enhance its American expansion.

I worked on almost every dirt-moving crew on the construction of the Alliance Pipeline, from 35 C below to 30 C above. I started on road bores, special projects, ditch, tie-ins, did a bit of backfill and eventually final cleanup. I started work three weeks after my wedding, and out of the 12 guys on my road bore crew bus, I was the only one married once.

Wet’suwet’en protests, deep dive into ESG, Part 1

Like or hate it, believe it’s a passing fad or the wave of the future. #ESG came out of nowhere about four years ago and now is at the forefront of concern for almost every larger business in the energy sector, and beyond. This Op-Ed by Deidra Garyk studies the Impact of ESG on the Energy Sector, Part 1. Watch for Part 2 tomorrow.

And along those lines, the Coastal GasLink project was an ESG nightmare, with protests across the country. This Canadian Press story says Police violated protesters’ rights in Wet’suwet’en pipeline blockades, Amnesty says

Also, oil prices are plummeting. This is not good, here, there or, apparently, in New Mexico

No. 2 oil-producing US state braces for possible end to income bonanza in New Mexico

COP28: Canadian gov’t focused on shutting down oil and gas while Saskatchewan was speaking for it

Feds “focused on targeting the shutdown of a complete industry, regardless of whether they’re going to meet their emissions targets or not,” says Saskatchewan Premier Moe in Dubai

Pipeline Online speaks with Premier Scott Moe at conclusion of Dubai COP28 trip. (Another reporter asked questions, too, like do you believe the planet is warming…?

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/

… And the horse you rode in on: Sask on Guilbeault’s emissions cap

Guilbeault’s latest application of a knee to the neck of the oil and gas industry in Canada:

Canada proposes new methane emissions rules for oil-and-gas sector

To which Saskatchewan responds:

‘A production cap by default’: Sask gov’t reacts to Guilbeault’s proposed methane regulations.

Ever hear about the Output Based Pricing? It’s basically a third form of carbon tax. Well, we’re going to use its proceeds to build reactors.

Saskatchewan to use Output Based Pricing to fund small modular reactor

In related news, in case you missed it Sunday night because I messed up my scheduling, a great column on Saskatchewan telling the feds to FU on the carbon tax on home heating:

Brian Crossman: I am Spartacus! I am Duncan!

Y2Kyoto: Reality Bites

Anas Alhajji: As COP28 is being held in Dubai with the oil industry participating in such events for the first time, the oil industry wasted no time making its case. We decided to repost this article for everyone to read.

EOA’S MAIN TAKEAWAYS

1. Data indicates that future demand for oil and gas is UNDERESTIMATED, while demand destruction is HYPED.

2. Global energy demand is increasing, making decarbonization more difficult to achieve, and the process of replacing fossil fuels slower.

3. Despite massive spending on renewables in the last two decades, fossil fuels remain the dominant source of energy in the world, even in Europe.

4. Coal remains the dominant source of electricity in India and China.

5. Oil is rarely used in power generation in the OECD, China, and India. Doubling or tripling solar and wind energy sources will have a very limited impact on oil demand. However, the failure of renewable energy, and consequent power shortages, will have a significant impact on oil demand.

6. As LNG prices reached a record high in 2022, oil use in power generation increased. The level of substitution among various energy sources last year was unprecedented.

Clean Electricity Regulations, pipelines, new nuclear

CANDU MONARK reactor.

I’ve been on the road, so there’s a whole lot to get caught up on:

Clean Electricity Regulations:

Saskatchewan and Alberta are tag-teaming the fight with Ottawa on the Clean Electricity Regulations. First, Alberta says on Monday it will use its Sovereignty Act (and Guilbeault has something to say about that). Then Saskatchewan names its tribunal panelists to look into the Clean Electricity Regulations and the harm they will do to the province. One of the panelists is Ken From, former CEO of SaskEnergy and occasional columnist for Pipeline Online. Another is former NDP finance minister and deficit-slayer Janice MacKinnon.

Wilkinson says Ottawa has always been flexible on clean energy rules. Yeah, right. A Canadian Press story.

CO2

Oilsands producers confident in their massive carbon capture project.

Pipelines:

Enbridge is finally, really, totally, completely done on Line 3 replacement. Really.

Coastal GasLink pipeline, the one to feed LNG Canada and finally allow LNG exports, has now been hydrotested and is now mechanically complete.

Nuclear, small and large:

Saskatchewan funds the Saskatchewan Research Council getting its first micro reactor. Notably, it’s a Westinghouse eVinci. Who closed its 49% purchase of Westinghouse a few weeks ago? Cameco.

SNC-Lavalin under a new name launches its first 1000 megawatt CANDU reactors.

The biggest opponent to nuclear development in Saskatchewan for decades was NDP MLA and cabinet minister Peter Prebble. Guess who is now complaining about Saskatchewan’s greenhouse gas emissions?  – a Zinchuk column

Misc.

A huge change occurred in Saskatchewan media, with the retirement of John Gormley, the king of talk radio in the Land of Living Skies for the last 25 years. His replacement is former Regina Police Service chief Evan Bray.

One BC First Nation standing in the way of another’s development of LNG terminal

The Nisga’a signed one of the first modern treaties in 1999, and is well on its way to making a final decision next year on the development of a multi-billion dollar LNG facility, with the backing of numerous natural gas producers, including Crescent Point Energy. But its neighbouring First Nation, the Lax Kw’alaams, are standing in the way. In the meantime, the world isn’t waiting and another opportunity for Canadian LNG is going down the tubes (posted last week).

Also: Senator Pamela Wallin was doing video interviews decades before Zoom existing. Last week she spoke to Pipeline Online editor and owner Brian Zinchuk regarding electrification, EVs, fuel economy, nuclear power, heat pumps, carbon tax and whole lot more.

Speaking of which, the Epoch Times picked up Zinchuk’s recent column on five year plans for the “Just Transition.”  Since that publication’s driving purpose is to fight against the Chinese Communist Party, they might know a thing or two about how five year plans went there.

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.

Fighting the carbon tax tooth and nail

Pipeline Online did In depth interview with the woman at the centre of the carbon tax storm, Conservative Natural Resources Critic Shannon Stubbs. This is part 1.

Also, hope for rising oil prices to lead to an increase in activity were dashed, so one of Saskatchewan’s serial entrepreneurs relocated one of his operations, based in Regina, to North Dakota, instead. Anyone care to guess why Canada’s oilpatch didn’t see an uptick in activity, and does it rhyme with “Doh?”

They’re just not that into Saskatchewan anymore…

Crescent Point Energy increases in size by a third with purchase of Montney player Hammerhead Energy Inc. for $2.55 billion. The company is in the hunt again, but its focus is Alberta, not Saskatchewan.

This is significant news. I’ve been saying for a while that Crescent Point has lost interest in Saskatchewan, and any day now we can expect the company to sell off its assets here. Note that both Shaunavon and Weyburn have rinks called “Crescent Point Place” and the lounge at the Estevan rink is similarly named. I pointed out in the story the company for a brief time was Saskatchewan’s largest oil producer. They did over 20 acquisitions (actually closer to 30, I believe), most of them in Saskatchewan, creating many millionaires and making a lot of people rich. But these days it is readily apparent their interest is elsewhere. The only references to Saskatchewan were, at the top of the list of highlights, that this deal “Transforms company into a Montney and Kaybob Duvernay focused E&P with complementary long-cycle assets in Saskatchewan.”

Also noteworthy – with this announcement they are increasing the Alberta proportion of their capital expenditure to 80%, up from the 70% from just a few weeks ago. It wasn’t that long ago, it was more like 95% in Saskatchewan.

So if you want to know why our drilling rig count is down so much, why $80 to $90 oil doesn’t have activity shooting up in this province – here’s your answer.

Steven Guilbeault. Screenshot from CPAC

Also, Guilbeault says no more carbon price carve outs on his watch, as Tory motion fails.

And some nutjobs attacked a painting, in London, again. But since there’s glass over paintings now to protect them from paint, these folks used hammers.

If someone’s going to make billions in the lithium world, maybe we in Saskatchewan should put some of that in our pocket. One of the three active lithium explorers in Saskatchewan is moving closer to commercialization. This is a video I did showing what’s going on. Lots of cool shots of earthmovers.

Canadian company loading supertankers in Texas, with American oil

We never did build an oil export port at Kitimat. But Calgary-based Gibson Energy recently bought a massive, nearly brand-new oil export facility on the Texas Gulf Coast. And this one is capable of loading supertankers. Too bad there wasn’t one on the BC coast they could have bought.

Also, Brian Zinchuk talks to John Gormley Live about the carbon tax, helium, wind, solar and more.

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