Moe issues Saskatchewan’s demands, a week after Smith announces Alberta’s
Reaching for a million (or 600,000?), Part 3: Low Productivity and Reactivation Oil Well Program announced. What if you could breathe new life into an old, depleted well?
Canadian Deep Green State
Jim Warren: The Canadian Deep Green State. Do you think current bureaucrats believe in BANANAs? (build absolutely nothing anywhere)
The shark gets swallowed: Whitecap closes Veren (formerly Crescent Point) strategic combination. The company that pretty much defined Saskatchewan’s Bakken Boom, gobbling up over 30 companies (most of them in southeast Saskatchewan) is no more.
Pipeline Online Podcast: Ep. 9 E. Craig Lothian, CEO of Lex Capital.
AFN chief calls for review of natural resource deals amid talk of Alberta separation
We now know how much SMRs cost. A lot
This week seems to be dominated by power generation pieces. The announcement in Ontario on Thursday has enormous implications for Saskatchewan, as we’re finally getting a price tag on how much four GE Hitachi BWRX-300 reactors cost. The cost is $20.9 billion, equal to the ENTIRE Saskatchewan 2025 budget. And we’re still very early on in the process, so there’s plenty of time for cost overruns. And we would need four, actually five, to replace our existing coal fleet of 1400 megawatts. The question before Saskatchewan will soon be can we afford nuclear? And if not, do we run coal – even perhaps expand it as our power needs grow?
Ontario greenlights four SMRs identical to the model SaskPower has chosen.
Here’s the verbatim Ontario press release:
Ontario Leads the G7 by Building First Small Modular Reactor
Other news about Saskatchewan oil producers from Canadian Press:
Cenovus Energy reports $859M Q1 profit, raises quarterly dividend
Canadian Natural Resources reports Q1 profit up, record quarterly average production
Pembina Pipeline reports higher profits, revenues for first quarter
Not necessarily separation, but separation if necessary
Danielle Smith implies not necessarily separation, but separation if necessary. Smith throws down a citizen-led separation gauntlet in her demands Ottawa meet Alberta’s demands. Here’s her speech, verbatim. The video is embedded.
Moe on energy, trade and federal election, Trump on Canada
It took a while for me to get this video edited, but here was Scott Moe’s first public appearance after last week’s federal election. He was speaking at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference.
Also, on Sunday:
Who will actually build it?
Brian Zinchuk: Who will actually get Energy East built?
Reliable energy?
Enbridge: Securing the affordable, reliable energy we need takes an all-of-the-above approach
Where have they been?
Bronwyn Eyre: Canadian Oil Companies’ Flip Flop on CCUS…and Everything Else.
Eyre pulls no punches in this column, wondering where the oil & gas CEOs have been all these years?
Election thoughts
National debate on energy
National leaders debate on energy, verbatim. You can bet pipelines were discussed.
Is national unity at stake in Saskatchwan?
Is national unity at stake, here in Saskatchewan?
Also: Oil price hits the fifties
Oilpatch better able to weather low crude price than in past, industry players say.
Maybe that was before oil hit the fifties?
Poilievre promises an energy corridor to the coasts
Poilievre’s key energy policy: a National Energy Corridor for pipe, power and rail. Here’s his speech, verbatim.
The reality is, we largely have a such a corridor already from Moose Jaw to a third of the way through Ontario. It’s Quebec and New Brunswick that are the issue.
And just a couple hours after Poilievre spoke, we recorded this with Andrew Scheer:
Pipeline Online Podcast, Ep. 6: Andrew Scheer on a National Energy Corridor and a whole lot more, including tariffs, Clean Electricity Regulations and coal-fired power.
Gradually, then suddenly
How does the saying go? Gradually, then suddenly?
In case you missed it, posted last night
Moe declares “Saskatchewan is now a carbon tax free province”
BC is scrapping its consumer carbon tax
B.C. to bring in legislation to end its carbon tax on consumers starting April 1
All things energy in Sask budget
All things energy in Saskatchewan Budget 2025
Pipeline Online combed through the budget so you don’t have to.
The biggest item for oil and gas is a new program meant to re-invigorate old, low producing wells by doing re-entries and drilling new legs on them of at least 500 metres. It will be interesting to see what the adoption of this program will be. I sure didn’t see it coming.
The story also does some digging into the goal of 600,000 or even 1 million barrels of oil production per day, and what the budget forecasts, which is essentially flat until 2029. There’s a big discrepancy there. Guess I better get back to working on my Reaching for a Million series and pump the ministry full of ideas before the next budget cycle.
On Friday I will publish the NDP response.
Deep dive into tariff impacts
Dr. Kaase Gbakon digs deep into the impacts of tariffs and the energy industry.
Drilling season wrapping up, greenwashing and wind
37 rigs still in the field as winter drilling season is about to wrap up
The greenwashing act has not gone away. Op-Ed: Heather Exner-Pirot & Sonya Savage: Canada’s greenwashing amendment: A failure of process and policy
Pipeline Online Podcast Ep. 3: Chad Eggerman on Wind
EV battery performance
Jim Warren: CAA study confirms Ottawa published deceptive EV battery performance numbers.
Also:
I finally got around to publishing the back catalog of Pipeline Online Podcasts. Here’s Ep. 4 on getting paid. Slow pay/no pay has long been an issue in the oilpatch. Guest Chris Simeniuk talks about how to make sure your receivables are coming in.
About that pipeline…
Trump calls once again for Keystone XL pipeline to be built
There is no project. There is no company behind it. TransCanada split into two companies. The team scattered to the winds. There is no pipe, and if there is any left, do not let it be put into the ground because it’ll be so rotten it’ll leak like a sieve. And there’s no one making pipe these days at Evraz, although such a project would surely be welcome there.
And why they hell would we lock even more into the American market at a forever discount? If we’re going to build pipe, build it to tidewater.
OR – is this they key to getting Trump to back off on tariffs?
Oil and Gas 20 is the real deal
Brian Zinchuk: Saskatchewan’s Oil and Gas 20 high school class is everything I hoped for.
“All-in-all, the new Oil and Gas 20 and 30 classes are among the best things I’ve seen the Saskatchewan government do for the oilpatch. Thank you to the premier, ministers who have implemented it (Jeremy Cockrill and Everett Hindley), Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre. and all in the ministry and oil companies who made it happen. And thank you for having the courage to do so, in spite of the braying criticism.
“For parents in the oil patch whose kids might have an inkling to follow in their footsteps, I strongly urge you to sign them up for next year’s class. This year the numbers were limited. Hopefully that will be expanded. Don’t miss out.
“Our industry needed this affirmation. We matter. And our kids need a chance to learn about it.
“Bravo.”
And for those who might not have seen the initial criticism of the very idea of oil companies getting involved with a class about their industry, from last summer here’s Murray Mandryk and Phil Tank.
Think pipelines
Brad Wall: Just how disfunctional Canada has become
And for those hating on the IEA:
Kaase Gbakon: IEA’s Mission Drift: A Review of Barrasso’s Report
Pipeline Online editor Brian Zinchuk will be on CJME and CKOM’s Evan Bray Show at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5.