Category: Drill, Baby, Drill

Best drilling rig count in years for Saskatchewan

Drill, Baby, Drill 6 Comments

Highest drilling rig count in Saskatchewan for several years seen Nov. 3.

WCS WTF???

Jim Warren: Differential differences: How online oil price publishers come up with vastly different WCS crude prices and why it matters

Last month when I finished with Bray I realized that there is now a wide divergence in the reported Western Canadian Select prices, depending on which site you look at. I asked columnist Jim Warren to look into it, and he spent the better part of the month on it. It turns out there are significant differences, and implications. A narrow majority of the insiders he spoke to says BNN Bloomberg is the price to follow, and that’s got huge policy implications for Canada, Saskatchewan and Alberta. That’s because it’s showing an enormous differential to WTI.

Example: Late Monday night

  • BNN Bloomberg WCS US$63.22      (WTI 96.95)
  • Oilprice.com WCS       US$91.77        (WTI 97.46)
  • AlbertaOil.ca WCS     US$81.36         (WTI 97.36)
  • EnergyNow.ca WCS   US$71.26        (WTI 97.07)

If you look at the other ones, you’ll think the differential is not a big deal. If you look at Bloomberg, it’s an enormous deal for the province’s finances. So, what is reality?

This has huge implications on the need to build a pipeline to the West Coast.

 

Five years in, and making a difference

Drill, Baby, Drill 7 Comments

Brian Zinchuk: Thank you for five years of Pipeline Online, with many more on the horizon

More on nuclear, with more to come:

Details on that Korean/US deal for the same model of Westinghouse reactors Sask is considering

SaskPower community outreach session on SMR site selection

Two CANDU models offered to SaskPower for large nuclear consideration

Lloydminster was surprised to hear large reactors may be coming their way

Tim Gitzel: Cameco is “ready for this day” announcing large nuclear for Saskatchewan

 

Also:

Weekend Watch: How Coal is Turned Into Electricity

This should be included as a required training video for all SaskPower and Crown Investments Corp. staff, as well as all MLAs.

 

A whole lot of depth on last week’s nuclear announcement for Saskatchewan

Drill, Baby, Drill Ethical Energy 6 Comments

I’ve written five stories thus far on the major announcement on Sept. 29 that Saskatchewan intends on building large scale, 1000 megawatt nuclear reactors in northwest Saskatchewan. I have at least another five to go. Here’s the first tranche, with the initial piece being the big lead.

Lead:

Two large reactors in the NW, two SMRs in the SE: Moe lays out Saskatchewan’s nuclear plans

Scott Moe: “Today, we are announcing plans to build about 2,600 megawatts of nuclear generation by the year 2050”

How are we going to put together a supply chain and workforce for building nuclear?

Sheldon Wuttunee on nuclear power: “What a great opportunity to work together”

Carla Beck: Our team supports nuclear power … Saskatchewan people deserve to see the full plan

ALSO:

Pipeline Online Podcast Ep 45: Heather Exner-Pirot on major pipeline and nuclear developments

QuickQuotes: Reaction to the Pacific Link pipeline project

Lithium in SK, Part 44: Feds invest into Prairie Lithium project

 

Flaming Solar Farms

Climate Cult Drill, Baby, Drill There Goes The Narrative 12 Comments

The 21st century version of the Springfield Tire Fire. I can’t wait for the day when solar arrays dot the landscape. Can you?

A fire at a solar farm in western P.E.I. is out after some battery cells burned, smouldered and flared up for two weeks.

On the day the fire started, which was the Labour Day holiday, a shelter-in-place order was issued, as well as a voluntary evacuation notice, and some roads were closed. Two schools were closed the following day.

 

How about we quintuple that?

Drill, Baby, Drill 26 Comments

Premier Scott Moe talks a lot about increasing oil production from 450,000 barrels per day to 600,000. It looks like Strathcona Resources will be a huge part of that increast (about a third), if they are successful in their plans. And that’s all in northwest Saskatchewan.

Strathcona Resources opens Meota Central SAGD facility, with big plans for more to come

Also, some pieces from Canadian Press on the new Build Canada Strong Act:

Liberals table bill to speed up major project approvals, avert labour disruptions

Five things to know about the Liberals’ new Building Canada Strong Act

And some more on the whole potash thing:

Moe warns ‘blood potash’ part of Trump’s planned deal with Belarus to thwart Canada

 

 

BREAKING: Bell to quadruple size of Regina data centre under construction

Drill, Baby, Drill 25 Comments

BREAKING: Bell to quadruple the size of Regina AI data centre, build its own 900 MW of power generation

They haven’t even finished building the first part of its Regina data centre, yet Bell Canada will now quadruple it in size. The announcement is the largest dollar value project in Saskatchewan history, and its power consumption will equal 42 per cent of Saskatchewan’s current power generation on a mid-September day.

The power consumption will be equal to four BHP Jensen potash mines, which is to be the largest in the world. The economic impact of $50 billion will be greater that the dollar value of Saskatchewan’s provincial budget for not one, but two years, with several billion more to spare.

This is mammoth.

Also, check out today’s podcast, where Bronwyn and I got into a heavy debate with a gentleman on coal fired power generation.

The Great Coal Debate: Should Saskatchewan refurbish its coal fleet? Mitch Carlson on Ep. 44 Pipeline Online Podcast

And

Jim Warren: The more we learn about Donald Trump’s Venezuelan oil deal, the worse it looks

WAR! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!

Drill, Baby, Drill 18 Comments

First of all, I’m not endorsing this video. There’s a fair bit of hyperbole. But it is also a very interesting perspective on the current trade war between the United States and Canada. 

Weekend Watch: The US-Canada War has begun

Additional weekend reading:

Jim Warren: It’s kinda hard to worry about the climate when Trump’s trade war might put you out of work

Officials break ground on massive carbon capture project in central Alberta

Not sure if I posted this earlier in the week:

Pipeline Online Podcast Ep. 42: Chris Beaudry, Saskatchewan Minister of Energy and Resources. Topics include ongoing trade war, pipelines, Venezuela, and growing Saskatchewan oil production. Beaudry will be speaking at the upcoming Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show in mid-September.

End Of The Road?

Drill, Baby, Drill Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing There Goes The Narrative 7 Comments

Thus far in the conflict with Iran, oil price spikes have been moderated thanks to the ongoing release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A potential problem is that those reserves cannot be drained anywhere close to zero. If that’s the case, then we may have already hit the bottom of the barrel.

The level will drop to about 243 million if Trump releases a final batch of 39 million barrels from a March agreement with the International Energy Agency.

Siddharth Misra, a professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University, said that while the absolute physical floor for the SPR is 70 million barrels, the practical minimum level for safe operations is close to 250 million barrels.

Trump may have laid his trump card

Drill, Baby, Drill 104 Comments
President Donald J. Trump speaks with members of the media alongside outgoing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Friday, August 21, 2026, en route to South Carolina. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

 

Trump announces major Venezuela oil deal, and what it means for Canada

The timing of this, in the midst of a major trade dispute between Canada and the US, as well as the impending Alberta independence referendum, if likely no coincidence. Trump may have just played his trump card, as it were. If our biggest customer of our most valuable product no longer needs or wants it, what are we to do?

Now Is The Time At SDA When We Juxtapose! (bumped)

Art Of The Deal Ethical Energy Western Separatism 72 Comments

August 26th, 2026

A day after the federal government unveiled its new retaliatory measures against the US amid the trade war, NDP Leader Avi Lewis is calling on the Liberals to tax energy and critical mineral exports to the US.

There has been growing momentum across the political spectrum behind the idea of using Canadian exports as leverage in the dispute. In recent days, several politicians including Jean Chrétien, Jason Kenney, and David Eby have called on the Carney government to impose or consider imposing an export tax as an option for responding to US tariffs.

August 27th.

The Trump administration is in talks with Venezuela’s interim government about taking an ownership stake in the South American country’s enormous oil resources, two U.S. officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The historic deal would more than double U.S. oil reserves by drawing from a country that has the world’s largest proven reserves.

Do tell.

August 28th.

No can do

Drill, Baby, Drill 54 Comments

Moe: “We cannot in any way support the adding of export tariffs on a product like oil”

“Again, this is only a function of a flawed policy discussion that we have had in this nation over the course of the last decade or better, where we see those very, in all too often, those very same individuals that are promoting export tariffs on a product like oil, 10 years ago, were the very same individuals standing up and saying we should not build important energy security infrastructure like the Energy East Pipeline.” – Scott Moe

Think about this: The top three contributors to Saskatchewan’s GDP is oil, potash and ag, with oil and potash vying for top spot (usually it’s oil, but potash might beat it this year). If we put an export tax on any of those, we’re shooting ourself through the foot, floor, and neighbour’s ceiling in the apartment below us.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation