Industry
Energy
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Operational Excellence Takes Centre Stage
The Operational Excellence in Energy and Utilities conference and workshops took place recently at the Old Mill Inn in Toronto, Ontario. Over 150 industry professionals attended the event, including representatives from Enbridge, HydroOne, Suncor, SaskPower, Hydro-Québec, Toronto Hydro, Ontario Power…
Alberta buying its own rail cars to move oil without feds, Notley says
OTTAWA – Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says her province is buying enough new rail cars to ship another 120,000 barrels of oil a day, without the federal government’s help. The premier was in Ottawa Wednesday to deliver a speech steps…
Nova Scotia power utility comes under fire after widespread outage
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s electric utility came under fire Thursday after widespread power outages prompted opposition leaders and online critics to call on the government to hold the privately owned company to account. The entire Atlantic region was swept by…
Alberta in ‘crisis’ over low oil price: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
CALGARY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Alberta is in a crisis as the province’s oil is being sold at a discount of about $45 a barrel. Speaking in Calgary as pro-oil protesters shut down part of the city’s downtown,…
New tax incentives for investment could increase Canada’s emissions
OTTAWA – Big greenhouse-gas emitters will be able to take advantage of new federal tax incentives Finance Minister Bill Morneau promised Wednesday even if that means more emissions, the government says. Measures in Morneau’s fall fiscal update will allow manufacturing…
EDC spends 12 times more for fossil fuels than clean tech, report says
OTTAWA – New research shows Export Development Canada provided 12 times as much financial backing to oil and gas companies as it did to clean-technology companies over the last five years. The findings by lobby group Oil Change International show…
Alberta energy firms split on call for government imposed production cuts
CALGARY – The question of whether Alberta should force industry-wide production cuts to relieve an oversupply of oil and support prices has opened a rift between companies who are suffering from current price discounts and those who aren’t. On Thursday,…
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Power System Studies
Understanding the importance of a short circuit protection and coordination study and an arc flash hazard assessment. A typical power distribution system for a large facility or campus is comprised of multiple distribution voltages and corresponding equipment. An incoming electrical…
Carbon taxes on coal fired power plants to affect only some of their emissions
OTTAWA – Coal-fired power plants in Canada will pay to keep polluting once the federal government imposes a carbon price but, like other heavy emitters in Canada, they won’t pay for every tonne of greenhouse gas they produce. Environment Minister…
New president at Manitoba Hydro to navigate turmoil at Crown corporation
WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government has appointed a new president and chief executive officer at its Crown-owned energy utility. Jay Grewal becomes the first woman to head Manitoba Hydro, and takes over the top spot as the utility faces mounting…
Husky Energy vows to boost downstream output if it wins MEG hostile takeover
CALGARY – Husky Energy Inc. will increase its downstream capacity and thus “insulate” itself from recent large heavy oil price discounts if it succeeds in its hostile takeover of fellow oilsands producer MEG Energy Corp., CEO Rob Peabody said Thursday.…
Little hope seen for oilpatch activity growth as steep price discounts continue
CALGARY – The Canadian oil and gas sector is in a holding pattern in which spending and production growth can’t occur until new ways to get products to export markets are found, according to CIBC analyst Jon Morrison. The steep…
Northern Pulp confirms leak, immediate response at Nova Scotia mill
PICTOU, N.S. – The Northern Pulp mill in Nova Scotia says it took action immediately after discovering a leak from one of its effluent pipes over the weekend. The company says it was first notified of an effluent leak at…
Imperial Oil restarts Norman Wells, N.W.T., crude output after pipeline repairs
CALGARY – Imperial Oil Ltd. has restarted oil production at Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories almost two years after being forced to suspend shipments on a pipeline threatened by slope stability concerns at a Mackenzie River crossing near Fort…
Enbridge to begin building road to access pipeline explosion site in B.C.
VANCOUVER – Enbridge Inc. says it has begun construction of a temporary access road to the site of a natural gas pipeline explosion in Prince George, B.C. In a news release issued Sunday the company says construction will take a…
Oilsands bitumen prices fall into negative territory, analyst calculates
CALGARY – A financial analyst says prices being paid for Western Canadian oilsands bitumen have fallen so far that many producers are losing money on every barrel sold into the spot market. Analyst Matt Murphy of Tudor Pickering Holt &…
Oil discounts grow as CEOs complain of Canada’s competitiveness gap
CALGARY – Discounts on Canadian crude oil widened to multi-year highs on Wednesday as oil and gas executives took turns at a conference pointing out Canada’s competitiveness gap in attracting energy investors. Prices for both Western Canada Select, an oilsands…
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Environmental Footprint of Maintenance
Maintenance activities have a direct effect on the environment that surrounds the facility where they are executed. There are three aspects in which maintenance strategies contribute to a facility footprint in the environment: resources needed, efficiency of the equipment, and…
Zinke expected to OK block on mining claims near Yellowstone
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has scheduled a visit next week to Montana, where he’s expected to finalize a proposal to block new mining claims on the forested public lands just outside Yellowstone National Park. Zinke, a former Montana congressman,…
LNG Canada project in British Columbia given final approval by shareholders
VANCOUVER – Final approval for a massive liquefied natural gas project in northern British Columbia shows that major resource projects can be built in the province, the CEO of LNG Canada said Tuesday. The future of major energy projects in…
