Globe and Mail- Facing tariff threats, B.C. wants to work with Alberta to streamline regulations with a focus on natural gas
Could’a Had a Pipeline
Scott Moe- Effective Immediately: All pipeline permits going east, west, or south received in Saskatchewan will be considered pre-approved.
We encourage all provinces and the federal government to do the same.
Obligation To Serve
Six Things to Know About Your Electric Utility
Many years ago, a comedy group posted a video featuring actors as average Americans in a slick faux commercial satirizing coal energy. Turns out the coincident target of this mockery was the rest of us and how little we understand about what powers our lives.
“What if the power to sustain your world was right inside a mountain?” asks the narrator. He continues, “What if you could power an entire city for a hundred dollars?” A man in a hard hat says, “Cheap power is clean power. The future is later.” A woman looks soberly at the camera, “Electricity comes from the walls in my home where I live.”
Coulda Had A Pipeline
A good follow, btw.
Coulda Had A Pipeline
Listen to this answer!
Poilievre is asked about tariffs or export controls on Canadian oil and gas and gives a masterclass.
pic.twitter.com/dgvIkKdmXO— Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) January 16, 2025
There’s No Business Case For LNG Exports
Bloomberg, with nifty graphics.
Every six hours, somewhere in the world, a shipment of liquefied natural gas controlled by a Japanese company leaves a port. The vessels — giant, floating thermoses that keep the fuel super-chilled — cross the globe, destined for pipelines in energy-hungry countries in every hemisphere.
These tankers, which handle a quarter of all LNG shipments, are only the tip of Japan’s increasingly dominant gas empire. With the enthusiastic backing of the government, corporate Japan now offers a complete package for countries looking to replace aging, and near-unfinanceable, coal power stations with gas: Its engineering firms will provide technology and parts, its utilities some fuel, and the banks will offer financing.
Buy Saskatchewan? Major nuclear MOU signed
SaskPower, Cameco and Westinghouse sign MOU on future nuclear development
With Westinghouse now 49% owned by Saskatoon-based Cameco, the prospect of “buying Saskatchewan” becomes significant.
As a side note, I’ve been expecting this sort of development ever since Cameco announced it was buying nearly half of Westinghouse. While SaskPower is currently committed to building GE-Hitachi reactors at Estevan, at least two of them, it’s quite possible subsequent reactors will be Westinghouse models. And Moe has told me several times the government is considering big, 1000 megawatt reactors.
As for the fancy curved architecture, I expect the final product will be much more utilitarian.
There’s No Business Case For LNG Exports
Bloomberg: Norway Gas Scare Puts European Market on Edge
Europe’s gas market has been jolted out of its slumber.
An outage in key supplier Norway sent prices up Monday by the most this year, and uncertainty over the duration of repairs has traders on edge.
A fault on a pipe at the Sleipner Riser platform shut off operations at the country’s massive Nyhamna processing plant and curbed flows into the UK’s Easington terminal, an entry point for a third of Britain’s supply.
Futures jumped as much as 13%, showing the impact of such a disruption even with European demand still sluggish and stockpiles brimming. Prices partly recovered Tuesday on news that the halt may end Friday.
Yet the network operator has given scant detail on the repair plan, and past outages at Norwegian facilities have often been extended.
Estevan for the reactor win
Premier Scott Moe came to Estevan to announce that if SaskPower builds reactors, they will be near Estevan. It’s been narrowed to two possible sites (maps in story).
Here’s the reactor portion of his speech, verbatim.
And in it, he talks about how SaskPower just might keep its coal fleet in operation until the reactors are built and operating. That would be well past the federal mandate, which Saskatchewan just might ignore.
And the premier’s social media shared the story, too.
“On the occasion of the Estevan Chamber of Commerce’ 120th anniversary banquet, Premier Scott Moe delivered news that could secure the future of the Energy City for many more decades to come.”https://t.co/aTLKLr40TH
— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) May 31, 2024
Y2Kyoto: Chart Of The Day
Wall to be honoured by Saskatchewan oil industry
Former Premier Brad Wall will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Hall of Fame at the upcoming Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show on June 5.
During his tenure as premier, Wall did something most politicians in the rest of Canada wouldn’t. He stood up for and celebrated our energy industry.
Crescent Point no more, and more on Rex
Crescent Point Energy, which was briefly Saskatchewan’s largest oil producer and a corporate darling, is continuing its shift to Alberta focus. Last week saw the sale of one of its last major remaining properties in Saskatchewan, and on Friday, it changed its name.
Oh, and it lost a pile of money in that sale, it seems. If they were going to lose so much money, why the rush to sell it?
And hockey had Gretzky, while columnists like myself had Rex Murphy. He wasn’t afraid to be an ardent supporter of oil and gas, in large part because it proved to be the salvation of Newfoundland when the cod fishery collapse.
End Of Oil
Suncor reported record upstream production of 835,000 barrels per day during the quarter, including all-time high oilsands production of 785,000 barrels per day.
The company says it achieved record refined product sales of 581,000 barrels per day, and saw its highest-ever first quarter refining throughput at 455,000 barrels per day with 98 per cent overall refinery utilization.
Going nuclear: Moe says Estevan’s likely location for SMRs
Moe says Estevan likely location for small modular reactors.
In the story I talk a bit about how the province and SaskPower are a bit cagey about definitively saying, “Yes, for sure, damned rights, we’re building reactors.”
But you can be sure, “Yes, for sure, damned rights, we’re building reactors.”
Did I call it, or did I call it?
Chain Reaction
In the final year in which both nuclear reactors were operational, the Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) generated 16.7 terawatt hours of reliable baseload power from its 2.1GW of combined capacity—enough to meet roughly 25% of New York City’s total demand. By mid-2020, only one of those reactors was still running, but it managed to do so for the entire calendar year without interruption, turning in a perfect capacity factor of 100%. Not bad for a facility that sits on just 240 acres of land.
Down The Primrose Path
At the same time that French President Emmanuel Macron is threatening to send troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia, his country is fueling the Russian war effort by purchasing €600 million worth of natural gas from Moscow in the first three months of 2024.
“The same architects of our insane energy policy… are also the architects of our military strategy.”
I believe I’ve mentioned this.
The team riffs with Doomberg, a renowned energy analyst, to discuss a range of issues from the global energy landscape to geopolitical tensions and the changing nature of warfare. The conversation also delves into the intricacies of the global natural gas market, the impact of sanctions on Russia, and the potential future of nuclear energy.
Doomberg is a good, though pricey Substack to subscribe to. I wish more of his material was open to free viewing.
Hey, about that pipeline?
Brian Zinchuk: If Poilievre wins a massive majority, can we PLEASE build the Energy East Pipeline?
(I’m fairly certain Premier Moe is tired about me asking about this. I was still talking about it two years ago, which was four years after it was supposed to have been completed. But it’s worth a shot.)
UPDATE: It appears Premier Scott Moe agrees:
— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) March 14, 2024
There’s No Business Case For LNG Exports
A huge wave of liquefied natural gas is about to flood a world that’s supposed to be transitioning away from fossil fuels.
More than $235 billion has been plowed into the next slate of projects for the super-chilled fuel since 2019. The first of those plants will come online later this year, and a further $55 billion may be invested through 2025, Rystad Energy forecasts show.
That will help drive an historic 70% jump in LNG export capacity by the end of the decade, according to Baker Hughes.
The industry is essentially betting the world will need a lot more of the fuel as Europe rushes to replace piped Russian gas and Asia — particularly China — shifts away from coal.
Just today, US producer Chesapeake Energy Corp. agreed to snap up a key rival, capitalizing on demand for shipments from the Gulf Coast.
Massive export projects from the US to Qatar will cement LNG in the global energy mix for decades, especially with some purchasing contracts going into the 2050s — beyond targets set by many nations to become carbon-neutral.
Related: It’s not an easy time to be a politician.
Did we just miss out on a mini oil boom? Sure looks like it
The old bumper sticker used to say something like, “Lord, please grant me another oil boom, and I promise not to piss it away this time.”
The "one more oil boom" bumper sticker is back. #Alberta pic.twitter.com/PgAcALrAgr
— Justin Giovannetti (@justinCgio) September 20, 2016
Well, oil prices were up in 2023, but oil drilling in Saskatchewan certainly didn’t reflect that. So Pipeline Online asked Premier Scott Moe what Saskatchewan is going to do about it.
Saskatchewan’s Year in Energy: Premier Scott Moe, 2023: Part 2 Oil Drilling, or Lack Thereof
Across the border to the west, The last coal-fired power station in Alberta will soon be out of coal. A few weeks ago, a notice posted to the the Alberta Electric System Operator website provided an update on its conversion to natural gas.
The end of coal-fired power in Alberta is nigh
Also, from Canadian Press:
Regulator denied Trans Mountain variance request due to pipeline safety concerns
And this one is a doozy. This is the Liberal government trying to cement into place carbon pricing so that even if the government changes, nothing can be done about it.
Feds sign first carbon contract for difference with Calgary-based Entropy