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
National debate on energy
National leaders debate on energy, verbatim. You can bet pipelines were discussed.
Power from Manitoba? And a vote for seccession
Before the Manitoba premier pulls out of US contracts, maybe he should have lined up a willing buyer? Because he really, really wants to sell power to Saskatchewan now, according to the press conference I listened to late Monday. Are we going to buy? Be sure to read his comments about neighbours paying mortgages…
Manitoba Hydro ends two US contracts, seeks to sell power to Nunavut and possibly Saskatchewan
Jim Warren once again knocks it out of the park.
Jim Warren: Manning said a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession. And he’s right.
I was interviewed in January at a Calgary conference by Robbie Picard. This is that interview, just published Monday:
“We need to diversify our markets. We need to get to other places.”
Canadian Press
Canada’s LNG industry set to take flight as interest reignites in Alaska megaproject
I anticipate Canadian natural gas prices are going to go up as a result. Good for producers, great for Alberta and BC. Not so good for SaskPower, businesses and home owners who need heat.
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.
Carney says he’ll kill the carbon tax
Mark Carney new Liberal leader and prime minister: cutting carbon tax, fighting Trump. He never mentioned pipelines, but Chretien did.
Nuclear supply chain being developed in Saskatchewan, tariffs
BIG NEWS: Westinghouse in SK, Part 3: Westinghouse signs MOUs with six Saskatchewan companies. When they say modular, they mean modular.
Despite Thursday’s partial tariff reprieve, Saskatchewan still cutting off US alcohol sales and procurement. This story is moving so fast, I had to update it twice before publishing. It might be out of date by Friday morning.
South Bow says tariffs could create challenges in its marketing segment (this is the spin-off company from TC Energy that operates Keystone Pipeline)
ROK Resources releases 2025 budget guidance, CEO discuss possible tariff impacts
How to potentially bankrupt a province
Brian Zinchuk: How much might building SMRs cost Saskatchewan Hint: it’s not cheap.
This is a major piece talking about the costs that could be incurred building small modular reactors. Those costs could be unobtainable, which is why coal is back on the table in a big way.
The numbers come from the Tennessee Valley Authority, who already operate three nuclear plants and is the largest utility in the US. They plan on building the same model of reactor.
Also:
Moe proclaims pipeline projects “pre-approved,” Smith joins in.
I’m not sure how a provincial government can pre-approve something it has no regulatory power over.
Response to Trump’s Keystone XL appeal
Moe, Smith and Sask NDP respond to Trump’s call for Keystone XL to be built
Also:
Bronwyn Eyre: Why Newfoundland’s Case Against the Feds Matters
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?
Everyone’s now talking pipelines…
But the companies who originally proposed them are not interested and have moved on.
Indeed, I was not aware that the once-underused 42 inch pipe in the TransCanada mainline is now fully subscribed, meaning it is no longer available. While apparently Line 2 is out of service, there’s likely a reason. So instead of a project which had 2/3 of the pipe already in the ground, we’d be starting from scratch for a new Energy East. And TC Energy has spun off its oil pipelines business to a new company, South Bow. So we’re really back to zero on this, if not many steps backwards, compared to where we were in 2013-15.
So much for Energy East: TC Energy says U.S. offers best returns as it considers spending commitments
And Enbridge is thinking the same on Northern Gateway.
Big shift in Canadian policy needed for new energy export projects: Enbridge
If only these projects had been built a decade ago…
Are you sitting down?
Are you sitting down? Quebec open to rekindled GNL Québec gas facility project amid U.S. tariff threats. Didn’t the premier just say no, again, to Energy East? As posted yesterday, Brad Wall noticed that.
I happen to know the CEO who leased a huge amount of acreage in Quebec for natural gas development many years ago. He figures they have enough gas to provide about a third of their own needs. But the Quebec government banned fracking, and that was the end of that. I think they still might be in court over it.
Jim Warren: Environmental policy makers around the world require greater adult supervision: Canada and Sri Lanka provide examples.
Suncor Energy earns $818 million in fourth quarter, upstream production rises
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.
Don’t miss the pipeline bus, Saskatchewan
Reaching for a Million, Part 2: Making sure Saskatchewan doesn’t miss the pipeline bus.
Also: Energy minister makes the case for U.S.-Canada energy alliance in Washington
Supreme Court declines to hear from oil and gas companies trying to block climate change lawsuits
Key takeaways from Trump’s energy secretary pick’s confirmation hearing
Reaching for a million
When I interviewed Premier Scott Moe during the fall election, he surprised me by saying he would like to see this province reach 1 million barrels of oil production per day, up from its current ~450,000 bpd. In 2019, the Saskatchewan Party government put forward a goal of hitting 600,000 bpd by 2030.
That got me thinking – could this be done? How? What would it take?
And when he won the election and promised to get everyone a family physician, I immediately wondered, where would the money come from? How are we going to pay for all of these doctors and teachers?
And what would the benefit be if we did double oil production? The impact would be massive. Oil is already our number one contributor to GDP, greater than ag or potash. We can’t easily double either of those. But we can do something about oil.
North Dakota went from 90,000 bpd to over a million in a few short years. They have vastly superior geology in one way, but we have 30 billion barrels of heavy oil that they don’t have.
So I started asking around, and did a few interviews, the first of many. I’ve been talking about this for a while, and now it’s time to put the pedal to the metal.
This will be an ongoing series, meant to explore just how Saskatchewan could double its oil production. Some might be naysayers. But maybe some will have some good ideas. I’m going to interview all the smartest people in the room over the coming months, even years, and keep pumping out stories. Premier Moe told me during my Christmas interview to “keep the heat on us,” and I intend to.
And in the end these stories are going to effectively be wrapped in a bow and plopped on the energy minister’s desk, with the ideas from the brightest people in the Saskatchewan oilpatch. Here you go, have at ‘er.
Be careful what you wish for, Weyburn
It was right around the time a man walked up to me, leaned close to my face and asked how much I had been paid to write a story talking about the benefits of the Weyburn wind project that I had an epiphany…
Brian Zinchuk: In opposing a wind project, Weyburn might want to be careful what they wish for
This is the column I referenced in those Weyburn wind stories. While I still very much question wind generation in a macro sense, I definitely had an epiphany when it came to NIMBY and the Weyburn wind project being presented by Enbridge. If an energy project can’t get built by an oil town, what’s going to happen when we want to start building reactors? Or a major pipeline is proposed?
And on Sunday, I stopped at the Bekevar Wind Facility. I posted a few videos from there, which I will eventually post as stories on the site. For the second time in a row, there was zero power being produced as not one turbine turned in the hour or so I was there. The wind was around 2-4 knots, according to weather reports.
Not what you’d expect from the NDP
New NDP energy critic worked on Enbridge’s Line 3 Replacement project.
I guess that would qualify her as a pipeliner, wouldn’t it?
Urgently
Premiers seek ‘urgent’ meeting with Trudeau before Trump returns to White House
Alberta aiming to create test site to support new drilling technologies
Alberta seeks to “de-risk” oil, gas pipeline investments in wake of Trump victory
Why the Sask Party lost the cities
Bronwyn Eyre: Saskatchewan election post-mortem: Why the Sask Party lost the cities
A former Energy and Resources Minister for four years, Eyre is joining Pipeline Online as a regular contributor, both as a columnist and co-host in an upcoming regular podcast that is rapidly coming together. Watch for Eyre’s continuing contributions on Pipeline Online in the weeks and months ahead.
Also:
Alberta wind power generation falls to less than one per cent capacity, once again (Last Friday, it fell to zero. You read that right. Zero.)
TC Energy CEO sees opportunity in Trump win as company refocuses on natural gas
And, what’s this Bluesky Social all about? In the interest of staking territory, Pipeline Online is now on this new social media at @pipelineonline.bsky.social. If you’re on there, be the first to follow, I guess?