The oil price crash of recent weeks has triggered a wave of huge exploration and production capital expenditure cuts
Lack of appetite to invest in the energy sector is leading the world into a supply crunch, says the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its recently unveiled World Energy Investment (WEI) 2020 report. The COVID-19 pandemic is having widespread and often dramatic effects on investments in the energy sector. At the start of the year,…
How one University of Alberta student persevered after losing brother in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash
The loss of her brother in a horrific bus crash that killed 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team will never leave Mariko Boulet, but as she graduates with her University of Alberta degree on June 12, she hopes it will make her a better person. “I think I’ve become a more loving, understanding…
Oil sands extraction declined largely because of shutdowns and maintenance of some production facilities. Crude oil extraction also falls
The natural resources sector in Canada continues to be challenged. A new report released Friday by Statistics Canada said real gross domestic product (GDP) of the natural resources sector fell 2.2 per cent in the third quarter, following a 2.8 per cent rise in the second quarter. The federal agency said the decline was largely…
Alberta produced 18.3 million cubic metres of crude oil and equivalent products in October, down 4.9 per cent
Energy production in Canada declined in several sectors in October 2019, compared with the same month in 2018, according to Statistics Canada. The federal agency said production of crude oil and equivalent products (-1.7 per cent), natural gas (-1.3 per cent), and coal (-9.3 per cent), as well as electricity generation (-3.3 per cent) declined…
And StatsCan says exports of crude oil and equivalent products increased in March
Production in all primary energy sectors rose in March compared with a year ago, according to data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada. And over the same period, exports of crude oil and equivalent products increased, while exports of natural gas and electricity decreased. The federal agency said production of crude oil and equivalent products rose…
StatsCan study over 66 years provides insight into which provinces experienced the most growth over three generations
Data released Thursday by Statistics Canada may be a couple of years old but it illustrates the importance of the oil and gas sector to the economies of several provinces. “According to a new study, from 1950 to 2016, real gross domestic income (GDI) per capita grew fastest in provinces with large oil and gas…
Exports on the rise to U.S. and elsewhere: StatsCan
Canadian production of crude oil and equivalent products totalled 264.6 million cubic metres in 2018, up 8.5 per cent from the previous year, according to Statistics Canada. The federal agency reported on Monday that non-upgraded production of crude bitumen (+12.7 per cent) was the main contributor to the overall rise. Since January 2016, the average…
Statistics Canada said exports of crude oil and equivalent products increased 10.7% from the same month a year earlier
Canada produced 23.1 million cubic metres (145.6 million barrels) of crude oil and equivalent products in October, up 13.2 per cent from the same month a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada. The federal agency said on Friday that Alberta produced 19.3 million cubic metres of crude oil and equivalent products in October, an increase…
The James Smith Cree Nation could create what would be Saskatchewan’s first private-pay MRI facility
A First Nation community about 70 kilometres southeast of Prince Albert, Sask., hopes to generate profit within five years from a private MRI clinic. The James Smith Cree Nation could create what would be the province’s first private-pay MRI facility. This became possible when the Saskatchewan government passed legislation in 2016 allowing for such facilities…
Separation has become a real possibility thanks to the abuses and injustices imposed by Ottawa
In the past couple of weeks, a retired senior oil executive, Gwyn Morgan, a former premier of Saskatchewan, Brad Wall, and a veteran journalist, Don Braid, all commented publicly on the current position of Alberta in Canada. They agreed on the nature of the problem, but stopped short of suggesting the obvious response. It’s not…
U.S. is by far the world’s largest refining market for heavy oil, processing more than half of all that type of crude globally in 2018
A new report released on Tuesday by IHS Markit says imports of Canadian heavy crude are an increasingly important source of supply to the United States, the world’s largest refining market for such crudes. The report, Looking North: A U.S. Perspective on Canadian Heavy Oil, said U.S. imports of Canadian heavy crudes will approach 2.8…
ATB report blames the decline on the completion of major projects and the dramatic oil price differential
The news from the oil patch continues to raise concerns across Alberta and Canada. The latest is the revelation that capital expenditure in the oil patch, a driving force of the national and provincial economies, is falling again. ATB Financial’s Economics & Research Team on Thursday released data from Statistics Canada indicating that there were “whispers…
Trotting out historical excuses for criminal actions will only leave rural residents to continue to be terrorized by gangsters
Rural crime near troubled reserves on the Prairies must be acknowledged if there’s any hope of remedying the situation. Doug Cuthand, an Indigenous Saskatchewan columnist, believes the phrase ‘rural crime‘ is code for crimes committed by Indigenous thugs. But in Saskatchewan, for example, an Indigenous man is 33 times as likely to be convicted of…
The efficiencies of shale exploitation technology may be sowing the seeds of a rapid decline
Ten-plus years ago, we heard about the “shale revolution” – the realization that horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing were changing the face of the oil industry, unleashing huge new supplies of gas and oil from unconventional (shale and tight) reservoirs. And while the revolution is still confined largely to the United States and Canada, it…
The federal government is simply layering a carbon tax on top of a pre-existing and very inefficient mix of regulations
In the latest example of carbon-pricing confusion, the C.D. Howe Institute recently published a report that describes the federal carbon-pricing plan as “cost-effective” – while noting evidence that the overall policy mix is anything but. Since we don’t get to pick which policies bite, it’s important to see the carbon tax not in isolation but…