Will this put an end to most Indigenous opposition to pipelines? TC Energy signs deal to sell minority stake in pipeline to Indigenous groups.
Also:
Energy Realities Podcast: Energy and the Olympics
Ottawa announces more than $192 million for Nova Scotia clean energy projects
Saturn has four drilling rigs going in the field, three of which are in Sask
Drill, baby, drill: Trump promises energy dominance, but lower energy prices
The last time, that didn’t work out so well for Saskatchewan oil and gas. The depths of the seven year oil downturn which devastated the Saskatchewan oil and gas industry included all four of the Trump years the last time around. While oil low prices benefited consumers and large portions of the economy, they also had a significant impact on Saskatchewan oil companies and particularly oilfield service companies. Activity levels, vendor rates, employment and employee remuneration were all deeply affected by the low energy price policies.
This is NOT an endorsement of Biden by any means, but simply a reflection on what did happen during the last Trump presidency.
In the continuing Clean Electricity Regulations series, we have the first of two stories from Cenovus, Saskatchewan’s largest oil producer:
Clean Electricity Regulations: Cenovus Energy (Overview) – a much more detailed piece will be published tomorrow.
“In Saskatchewan specifically, we are concerned that the tight timelines required to adhere to the CER will risk power shortages and grid instability.” – Cenovus
Also:
Lithium land sale brings in just under $6 million as SE Sask area grows
and:
From Associated Press, Trump wants to cut taxes and pump more oil
Jim Warren: In defense of populism: it’s a timeless prairie tradition
Also:
Brian Zinchuk on Evan Bray: C-59 and free speech, Oil and Gas 20 and 30, and more
And:
Ugg. The Canadian Press writes about oil and gas haters trying another way to financially choke the oil and gas industry Climate advocacy group calls out property insurers for fossil fuel support.
Climate advocacy group calls out property insurers for fossil fuel support
Crowdsourcing a curriculum for the new Oil & Gas 20 and 30 high school classes
The columnists with the Leader-Post and StarPhoenix were aghast that the oil and gas sector would have input into crafting a course. To hell with them. This is an opportunity.
Will you help?
Individuals – disgruntled employees, eco-activists, bored people – can go onto the Competition Bureau’s website and fill in the complaint form for the Bureau to decide whether or not to investigate. The unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy will decide who will and will not be investigated.
As I keep saying, this is 1979 on the way to 1984. We might even be in 1980 by now.
The reaction was fast and furious to this horrible intrusion on freedom of speech.
There is no way in hell Pipeline Online will be censored in this manner. I did not wear an air force officer’s reservist’s uniform for seven years to be gagged by my own federal government. A lot of companies, and individuals, feel the same. Here’s their statements:
Oilpatch to Ottawa: To hell with your gag law.
Here’s first evidence of the new law in action. It wasn’t the last.
Pathways Alliance oilsands group removes all website, social media content
Also:
Alberta environment minister unworried by movement toward methane tariffs
Top 10 Saskatchewan conventional oil wells for April
Saskatchewan launches high school oil and gas courses to encourage students to join industry
High school students in Saskatchewan will soon be able to take Grade 11 and 12 level classes in oil and gas. The class will be half online, and half in the field. How that second part is going to work out remains to be seen. This is in-depth coverage on this new initiative to encourage young people to join the energy industry.
My 17 year old son will likely be one of the first to sign up.
UPDATE: and the Leader Post’s Murray Mandryk doesn’t like it.
Also: B.C.’s Eby frustrated at Quebec immigration money ‘at the expense’ of Western Canada
If this hush money thing was such a big deal, why did it take 8 years to get to trial? Why not when he was in office, or right afterwards? Why now? Ask yourself that.
Some might accuse Trump’s opponents of specifically holding legal action against him for various alleged misdeeds until such time that he would otherwise be on the campaign trail. Guess what? It’s working.
Eight years ago, Trump made a big deal out of his North Dakota campaign stop. It’s when and where I got to ask him if he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline. This year, Trump’s legal battles kept him from the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, which I attended two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I’ve been pretty busy, so I haven’t had the time to write this until now. But the timing is fitting, with the trial wrapping up.
Lithium in SK, Part 29: Arizona Lithium begins drilling commercial production wells near Torquay
If Arizona Lithium is successful, we will hopefully start producing commercial lithium in Saskatchewan next year. That’s an entirely new resource industry, producing jobs, taxes and royalties.
These are exciting times. EMP Metal and ROK Resources (Hub City Lithium) are doing their pilot plant testing in Estevan. I’ll have a story on that soon. A third company is also at this moment drilling lithium wells in southeast Saskatchewan, and I expect to have a story on that later in the summer. Hopefully today’s story on the start of commercialization is just the first of many!
Please note the early part of the story credits the work done by Ben Rostron, the Saskatchewan Geological Survey, and Gavin Jensen, without which it is unlikely much of anything like this would be happening today. And that is why that recent announcement of $10 million for further research by the survey is so critical.
And also note – every single service company working on this project, as far as I’m aware, works in oil and gas. Without the oil and gas industry, we would not have the start of a lithium industry.
Also:
I’ve written the biographies for the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show awards. I haven’t been posting them here because it’s a bit too much insider baseball, but if you’ve driven around any oilfield and seen a bent pumpjack, you can credit this man, Paul Cheung. He and his partners literally changed the Saskatchewan landscape. And along the way he’s owned oil companies, drilling rig companies, and a service rig company.
Finally:
In an incredibly stupid move, the University of Calgary, headquarters of the Canadian oilpatch, stopped new intakes into its petroleum engineering program. Three years later, they realized how dumb that was and reopened the program. Funny thing, I was just talking to some people last week about how dumb this was. Could you imagine if the University of Saskatchewan got rid of its agriculture program? Or UBC got rid of forestry? These are the very foundations of each of those province’s economies. And Alberta has the third largest petroleum reserves ON THE PLANET. But nope, don’t need any more petroleum engineers.
University of Calgary looks to relaunch oil engineering program after hiatus.
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 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.
Anyone think that new pipeline might actually make a real difference? Hmmm? Too bad it wasn’t done five years ago. Trans Mountain pipeline project ushers in new era for oilsands hub Fort McMurray.
And too bad Northern Gateway wasn’t built 8 years ago. And Energy East was supposed to be in service December, 2018. Lots of too bads. I wonder why…
So I take my kid to a career day in Estevan, THE ENERGY CITY, and not one energy company has a table at the career fair. Here’s my not too impressed column about it.
Cenovus got spanked for an offshore oil spill.
And if you move dirt, ever, in Saskatchewan, you should be aware of Sask 1st Call. They had some big changes last year, apparently.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper to headline the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in Weyburn June 5-6. He speaks at noon on June 6.
Remember when he said the Liberals were promising teeny tiny deficits? Fortune teller, that one. “The budget will balance itself.”
Speaking of the oil show, there are a number of people who will be honored for their life’s work. Dean Gilliss is the first profile I’ve written this year.
Also: Apparently April 22 was Earth Day. Who knew? I must have missed that one. Anyhow, Biden used it as an excuse to throw another $7 billion at solar.
This is a REALLY good discussion about CO2, its role in the world, and anthropogenic climate change. The call it “fake catastrophes.” Lots of talk about glaciation, which I love, because no one ever talks about that. I do.
It is worth your time to listen to this some time this weekend. I feel a lot smarter now, and I’m only 2/3 through it.
A number of small Saskatchewan oil producers are scooping up land for future drilling.
Every two months Saskatchewan holds a competitive auction for mineral rights for petroleum and natural gas. If a company is interested in getting the Crown mineral rights to a few sections, for instance, they will apply to the government to have that land posted. Then at the next land sale, anyone can bid on it, and whoever bids the highest, wins. So even if a company had does all sorts of exploration and research to secure a certain piece of property, another company can notice what’s been posted on the land sale and outbid them. But whoever bids on it has certain spending obligations within a certain amount of time or they will lose those rights and they can go back up on the auction block again if they are once again posted. This is quite common.
It took me a while to get to this as it came out last week, but that gave me the time to dig deeper and discover that a good chunk of the activity appears to be from Saskatchewan-based junior producers. And that’s pretty exciting news. Yes, there’s still a substantial amount hidden by land agent deals, but seeing the juniors getting in the game like this is a sign of confidence in the industry. And this was posted BEFORE the multilateral announcement. So I wonder what will happen a few months down the road, with postings after the multilateral announcement?
Drill, baby, drill.
