Thank God it’s safe.
No damage to Trans Mountain Pipeline from Jasper fire, even though the fire jumped the pipeline
Oil and gas isn’t a sunset industry yet, despite what many think
Honey! It’s finished!
Well, they finally finished that pipeline to the Left Coast. In other parts of the world, this is May Day, the Workers holiday. Here, maybe it should be Pipeline Day?
And the Saskatchewan government is pretty excited about this multilateral well program. They announced it for a third time yesterday. This story provides more detail on how it could reinvigorate cold heavy oil production in the Lloydminster area.
Alberta’s getting behind geothermal development.
Build a pipeline, things pick up. Who woulda thunk it?
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.
About bloody time
Six years ago, they scratched dirt on TMX. Finally, FINALLY, it is nearing completion, and expected to enter service May 1.
The original pipeline was built over 65 years ago with equipment that largely didn’t even have hydraulics, and absolutely did not have computers, GPS, laser measurement or anything else like that. And they did it in 16 months.
Also:
Brian Zinchuk on Evan Bray Show: Multilateral wells, oil royalties, TMX pipeline, lithium, helium and more
Carbon and lithium
Working through the periodic table:
Lithium in SK, Part 27: Lithium Bank sells Estevan area land to unnamed buyer
Those Lloydminster folks aren’t too happy about the carbon tax.
Nor are a bunch of other people happy about the carbon tax.
And regarding hydrogen and carbon in the form of methane and other natural gas liquids,
Pembina closes Alliance Pipeline deal with Enbridge
As a note, The Alliance Pipeline runs right through Saskatchewan. I started work on it three weeks after my May, 1999 wedding. I was the only guy on my road bore crew of 12 married once! Most were on their second marriage, a few on their third, one I think on his fourth. At that point you walk into a bar, find a woman you don’t like, and give her your house.
In six weeks, it’ll be 25 years for us. So that pipeline project has some meaning for me.
Will a First Nation-owned pipeline be without protests and opposition?
Can’t imagine why oil shippers demand explanation from Trans Mountain for pipeline cost overruns, can you?
B.C. First Nation and Western LNG partner to purchase natural gas pipeline project. Can they succeed in bringing a major pipeline in on time and on budget, or will they face the same perils as Trans Mountain (above) and Coastal GasLink? Will other First Nations do all they can to halt it, like GasLink? Will they destroy equipment and raid camps?
US Bureau of Land Management accepts bids for the sale of Federal Helium System. FYI the US Govt getting out of #helium is what’s driving Saskatchewan’s burgeoning industry
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
Pipeline chicken or the egg?
Pipeline capacity gets restrained, slowing growth in oil production. Pipelines get built (Enbridge Line 3 replacement, Trans Mountain Expansion, eventually) allowing for oil production to grow. Oil production will soon grow to use up all that extra capacity, and production growth will be restrained, again.
So then what? I’m not aware of ANY major new export pipelines projects being considered. After Northern Gateway, Keystone XL and Energy East being canned, who would? And after the federal government proved you could go 6x, maybe closer to 7x over budget building a pipeline they way they want it built, what idiot will try again?
The alternative will have to be crude-by-rail. Oh, lovely.
(That pipeline photos is of a tiny gathering pipeline near Estevan, not a mammoth transmission line.)
As for another fan (NOT) of crude by rail, Quick Dick McDick hauled canola recently. And sang about it. Seriously.
On the radio
Brian Zinchuk on Evan Bray Show: Coal, CO2 and what it means for oil production, wind in Alberta, Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion, and a pile of listener calls. (Link is fixed)
Op-Ed: Kaase Gbakon: A (Hungry?) Tiger in Your Tank, Part 1
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
Federal and Nova Scotia governments kill offshore petroleum project in name of ‘clean energy’
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.
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
Unions and five year plans in “Just Transition” legislation
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.
Is C-69 dead or a zombie?
Conservative Natural Resources Critic Shannon Stubbs, Part 2: Is the Impacts Assessment Act Bill C-69 really dead?
Can solar flatline for a whole day? Yep.
Can solar power essentially flatline for a whole day? It did in Alberta on Monday
How is it some people are arguing a pipeline treaty is “dormant?” Would that make other treaties, say those with First Nations, also dormant?
I’ve been writing about the phenomenal growth of the North Dakota Bakken for the better part of 15 years. In 2008, the state produced around 90,000 barrels per day. By 2014, it was something like 1.2 million. Currently it’s around a million or so. A major player was Hess Corporation, which currently produces about 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent in North Dakota. But curiously, none of the supermajor oil companies were involved in North Dakota. Well, that changed, as Hess is being bought by Chevron.
Convoy protests in 2019 bore fruit in 2023 with Supreme Court ruling
Right side of history: Two protest leaders from 2019 truck convoys react to “No More Pipelines Act” ruling.
But is that going to stop Steven Guilbeault from moving to cap oil and gas emissions? Hell no.
More reaction to Bill C-69 No More Pipelines Act, and another helium producer starts production
Here’s Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s response, verbatim. I like doing these verbatim pieces because it allows the reader to hear the full-throated discussion, without a filter. It’s interesting how she talks about how the $20.6 billion Teck Frontier oilsands mine was killed by the No More Pipelines Act. That’s not chump change. Anyone think they might reconsider it? (That’s a trick question – Teck has since abandoned and sold off its oilsands interests – for obvious reasons.)
Also, after nearly three years of work since it drilled its first well near Climax, Saskatchewan, Royal Helium has entered into production with its first helium facility near Brooks, Alberta. This is transformational for the company, as it turns Royal from an explorer with no revenue to a helium producer, with revenue. Indeed, its production is already locked up in sales, so strong is the demand. And expect their next focus to likely be in Saskatchewan.
I’ll have another significant helium story posted for Tuesday morning. Exciting times, this.
Scope 3 emissions? What on earth is that?
Dr. Tammy Nemeth has been warning about this in her recent podcasts, and now the head of the TSX is doing the same. Small-cap companies not ready for climate disclosure rules: TMX Group CEO. Start counting those Scope 3 emissions, folks.
Along those lines, if they can’t protest you to extinction, they’ll litigate you. Greenpeace files securities complaint against Suncor over climate risk disclosures.
If I take part in #protests, can I claim some sort of journalist protection, too? RCMP dispute photojournalist’s account of arrest while covering pipeline protest
Hey, wasn’t this the guy behind the Kesytone Pipeline projects in the first place? TC Energy names former CEO Hal Kvisle as chair of new liquids pipeline spinoff.
And from the day before, Exxon buys Pioneer Natural for $59.5 billion. And here’s what it could mean for Canada. Isn’t that something like three times Canada’s entire defence budget?
Oh, and a University of Calgary prof is taking tactics out of a U of R prof’s handbook (I don’t think it’s the Communist Manifesto, but I could be wrong). Academic report calls for public inquiry into Alberta Energy Regulator. (The U of R prof sued her own university a while back, and yet is still employed.)
In Pipeline Online’s neverending quest to let the public know exactly what our federal government & Steven Guilbeault is telling us about climate change, here is a verbatim, unfiltered press release from Oct. 12 regarding the carbon tax in New Brunswick.
And our favourite minister, Steven Guilbeault, announced “Canada’s Circular Economy month in October.” Except instead of doing so on the 1st of the month, he did it on the 12. Maybe circular months have no beginning, no end. Think of Groundhog Day, with Steven Guilbeault telling us every day, forever, how we are horrible people…
Enbridge’s CEO has a lot to say about Canada’s lack of LNG development
It’s almost as if he’s making a business case for LNG. Imagine that. You know, the same thing the prime minister said there was no business case for? This is the verbatim speech he gave on Friday in Toronto.
Energy Transition Podcast Ep. 84: Coal is back – in fact, it was never gone.
Here’s something new – the Kindersley area took over half the dollars in the Crown petroleum right land sale last week. That’s highly unusual.
And, of course the Just about but not quite complete TMX pipeline will desecrate a sacred site.