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Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

Europe has avoided energy collapse. But is the crisis over? – by David McHugh (Associated Press -January 10, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe has dodged an energy apocalypse this winter, economists and officials say, thanks to unusually warm weather and efforts to find other sources of natural gas after Russia cut off most of its supply to the continent.

Natural gas suppliers in recent days have increased their stocks at a time when they’re usually being drawn down — an unexpected boost that has relieved fears of gas used to heat homes, generate electricity and power factories running out by winter’s end.

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The painful return to energy supply reality – by Gwyn Morgan (Financial Post – January 4, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had presided over a seven-year anti-oil
industry pogrom, thwarting multiple export pipelines that could have
helped supply countries now dependent on Putin’s blood oil.”

Last year my year-end column, “Fossil fuel follies of 2021,” focused on the bizarre impacts of the Great March Greenward by net-zero zealots intent on replacing the 84 per cent of global energy supplied by fossil fuels with electricity from windmills and solar panels.

Some effects were so ridiculous as to be almost humorous. As 2022 made painfully clear, however, there’s nothing at all funny about the enormous damage currently being inflicted by pursuit of this technically impossible goal.

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How the U.S. became a global leader in LNG – and why Canada has fallen behind – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – November 19, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The war in Ukraine has reshaped the world’s energy markets. Canada hasn’t kept up.

As Highway 27 winds around Calcasieu Lake in southwest Louisiana, massive storage tanks tower over the wetlands in what is shaping up to be a new global epicentre for exports of liquefied natural gas.

Near the town of Hackberry, Cameron LNG is eyeing expansion of its already-huge terminal, which opened in 2019. Along the highway and down other roads, there are three new proposed export terminals fronting the lake, which is just south of the small city of Lake Charles. One, Driftwood LNG, has more than 200 people working on early-stage site preparation.

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Teck Resources’ oilsands exit will allow it to lean into ‘low-carbon metals,’ says CEO – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – October 27, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

Miner sells its 21.3% stake in Fort Hills oilsands site to Suncor for $1 billion

Teck Resources Ltd. announced its long-telegraphed exit from Alberta’s oilsands Thursday, in a deal to sell its 21.3 per cent stake in the Fort Hills project to Suncor Energy Inc. for $1 billion.

Fort Hills, the most recently constructed oilsands mine located north of Fort McMurray, Alta., has been plagued by a series of operational and market glitches that restricted it from full production since operations started in 2018. When the deal goes through, Suncor will own a 75.3 per cent stake in the project with France’s TotalEnergies SE holding the remainder.

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OPINION: With its OPEC cuts, Saudi Arabia won the battle but will lose the war – by John Rapley (Globe and Mail – October 24, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

John Rapley is a political economist at the University of Cambridge and a senior fellow of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study.

Heading into an intense midterm election year, with soaring oil prices resulting from the Ukraine war, U.S. President Joe Biden felt no choice in July but to fly to Saudi Arabia, tail between his legs, and beg the country he’d called a “pariah” to open the oil taps.

A lot of good it did him. In return for the fist bump seen (and scorned) around the world, Saudi Arabia, in a move co-ordinated with Russia, spearheaded an OPEC+ output cut to raise prices.

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Fortress North America – by Diane Francis (Diane Francis Blog – October 20, 2022)

https://dianefrancis.substack.com/

Germany’s decision to scrap nuclear plants by the end of 2022 made the country – Europe’s engine of growth – dependent on Russia for energy, facilitating Vladimir Putin’s energy blackmail and war against Ukraine. The nuclear ban, promulgated by Greenpeace, never made sense because nuclear technology is safe and emissions free.

But anti-nuke criticism was stoked by Moscow as was this month’s OPEC price hike designed to kick the West and developed world in the teeth as they cope with war, costly sanctions, and energy hyper-inflation. Finally, Berlin reversed course this week and announced its nuclear plants will reopen indefinitely, a policy shift also undertaken by oil-poor Japan.

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Diane Francis: Canada is a lightweight nation – by Diane Francis (Financial Post -October 17, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

OPEC kicked the United States, the West, and the world’s poorest nations in the teeth recently with oil production cuts that will raise prices to help finance Russia’s war against Ukraine and Europe. And what has Canada done to help allay this situation, given that it is a country with one of the biggest oil and gas reserves on the planet?

There’s no indication that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned President Joe Biden immediately offering to help the global economy and war effort by shipping two million more barrels of oil a day to the U.S. Has he offered to build a natural gas pipeline and LNG projects in Eastern Canada to help Germany and Europe permanently replace Russian gas?

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Freeland’s political rhetoric ignores Canada’s reality – by Lorrie Goldstein (Toronto Sun – October 12, 2022)

https://torontosun.com/

Sounding like a reborn cold warrior, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday that Russia and China are despotic regimes inimical to our way of life. As a result, she said, Canada stands ready to help our democratic European allies weather the energy crisis provoked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Freeland called on liberal democracies to unite economically to counter the threat posed by Putin starving Europe of natural gas in retaliation for Western economic sanctions against Russia.

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Let’s get serious about a Putin-era strategy for energy, economy, climate: Freeland – by James McCarten (Canadian Press/CBC Politics – October 12, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Chrystia Freeland is in the U.S. this week for the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF

Canada’s deputy prime minister urged the world’s democracies Tuesday to confront the hard economic truths of a perilous new world order and seek common cause in the shared values of prosperity, energy security, protecting the planet, and free and fair trade.

Chrystia Freeland delivered an eloquent obituary for the relative peace and stability of the 33 years between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and Russia’s “barbaric violation” of Ukrainian sovereignty in late February of this year.

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Opinion: Climate extremists don’t speak for Indigenous groups – by Zachary Authier (Financial Post- October 7, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

They behave like modern-day colonialists when they impose their agendas on communities

Enbridge recently announced that 23 First Nations and Métis communities plan to invest $1.12 billion to acquire an 11.57 per cent interest in seven Enbridge pipelines in Alberta’s Athabasca region, the largest-ever energy-related Indigenous partnership transaction in North America.

This is a giant step towards economic reconciliation and a significant improvement for these communities on their path to self-determination and better material circumstances.

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Canada’s West Coast can export LNG globally, but East Coast faces pipeline constraints, TC Energy CEO says – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – September 27, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s West Coast is positioned to become a reliable supplier of liquefied natural gas, but the East Coast faces pipeline constraints, says TC Energy Corp.’s chief executive officer.

With Europe experiencing an energy crisis after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, François Poirier said he is optimistic West Coast exports to Asia will play an important role by injecting much-needed LNG supply into the global market. “Even before the invasion in Ukraine, we were already seeing signs of tightening supply,” Mr. Poirier said in a phone interview from Calgary. “I see a great opportunity for Canada.”

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Opinion: Unleash the Montney: Canada’s world-class gas field is waiting to be tapped – by Heather Exner-Pirot (Financial Post -September 29, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

The Montney Formation is a gift from the gods. But in Canada, it may well remain a geological marvel instead of an economic one

Straddling the B.C.-Alberta border lies the most valuable Canadian resource you’ve never heard of: the trillion-dollar Montney Formation, a giant gas field the size of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia combined. Its potential is huge but its future is uncertain. With the federal government’s proposed emissions cap, it may remain a sleeping giant.

The Montney Formation is a colossus, bigger even than the U.S.A.’s renowned Marcellus field, which helped set off the shale revolution. Largely overlooked before the innovation of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling made it economically viable to exploit, it is now tapped to supply the nascent west coast LNG industry.

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OPINION: The European energy crisis may not be as severe as advertised – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 20, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Appalling prices for oil and natural gas will guarantee Europe’s status as a dark, frozen hell this winter. Manufacturers big and small will fail – are failing already. Unemployment will rise. Countries with gruesome bills for energy imports will sink into recession. And the euro will keep sinking.

This scenario is pretty much accepted as gospel, and most of the data and anecdotal evidence suggests the economic pain will intensify as cold weather boosts energy demand. Almost half the households in the European Union depend on gas for heating, and gas is in short supply as pipelines to Central and Western Europe are cranked shut by the Kremlin in retaliation for the West’s sanctions against President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

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The bullish case for LNG, a reliable energy source investors should tap into – by David Rosenberg and Brendan Livingstone (Financial Post – September 9, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

‘Over the next decade plus, we see strong growth in LNG — and all that goes with it’

The Russia-Ukraine war is bringing to the forefront the importance of energy security, which has been neglected in recent years as supply exceeded demand and governments felt increased political pressure to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

However, with households confronting much steeper energy bills, which are at risk of rising further as winter approaches, the focus has shifted back towards providing reliable energy solutions at favourable costs.

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Breaking through Trudeau’s obfuscation on LNG – by Derek H. Burney (National Post- August 30, 2022)

https://nationalpost.com/

So, let’s try to get some things straight. About the time Vladimir Putin chose to invade Ukraine, Canada decided to veto Énergie Saguenay’s proposed LNG export facility in Northern Quebec, a project intended to enable exports to Europe.

One month later, the natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson said, “Our European friends and allies need Canada and others to step up.” He added “They are telling us they need our help in getting out of Russian oil and gas in the short term.”

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