Free Republic

The steep price discount facing Alberta crude is jeopardizing the Redford government’s projection of collecting $10 billion in bitumen revenue by 2014-15, as fewer oilsands projects are expected to graduate into paying higher royalties in the short term, says Energy Minister Ken Hughes. In last spring’s budget, the Tory government predicted it would collect a gusher from the province’s 108 oilsands projects, with bitumen royalties hitting $5.7 billion this year and climbing by an average of 32 per cent in each of the following two years — driven by rising production and expectations of higher commodity prices. Rising prices would...

The Seaway Crude Oil Pipeline Co. has taken the biggest step so far toward reducing transportation bottlenecks between the U.S. Midwest and the Gulf Coast, setting the stage for significant changes by mid-2014 that will bring relief to Bakken producers. The 50-50 joint venture by affiliates of Enbridge and Enterprise Products Partners has completed a reversal of 500 miles of the Seaway system, increasing the flow between Cushing, Okla., and Houston to 400,000 barrels per day from 150,000 bpd. The partnership is now targeting 850,000 bpd by the first quarter of 2014 when it introduces a new twin line parallel...

Full Title: Upcoming Pipeline Capacity Additions Will Facilitate Continued Growth in Crude Oil Shipments from Midwest to Gulf Coast This Week in Petroleum Continuing growth in U.S. crude oil production is causing significant changes in the way crude oil moves within the United States. The Midwest (PADD 2) has been one of the major sources of this production growth, especially from the Bakken formation in North Dakota. Pipeline flows from PADD 2 to PADD 3 will increase over the next two years as several major pipeline projects, starting with the Seaway Pipeline's current capacity expansion, are completed. As PADD 2...

Seaway Crude Oil Pipeline Company LLC announced that service on the 500-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline between Cushing, Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast resumed today, with approximately 400,000 barrels per day ("BPD") of capacity now available to shippers. Service was suspended on January 2, 2013 so that the remaining pump station connections could be completed allowing capacity to be increased from approximately 150,000 BPD.

Two ventures aiming to break the logjam facing Western Canadian producers seeking new markets for their crude oil face crucial tests in January. Vancouver-based Generating for Seven Generations, or G7G, is expecting to know whether it will get C$40 million in financing to study the feasibility of its plan to build a rail line from Alberta to Alaska to connect with the Valdez Marine Terminal, while a coalition of railroads and producers is scheduled to decide whether it will conduct an experimental shipment of 2 million barrels of crude this summer through the Hudson Bay port at Churchill, Manitoba, to...

A proposed pair of projects worth $600 million will pump an additional 230,000 barrels per day of oil through existing pipelines from Alberta to Wisconsin. In a news release Friday, Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. announced a $400-million expansion of the Canadian main line system between Hardisty, Alta., and the U.S. border designed to add capacity through increased horsepower at pumping stations. Meanwhile, Enbridge Energy Partners of Houston announced a $200-million expansion of its Lakehead System between Neche, N.D., and Superior, Wisc. to allow the same 230,000-bpd capacity increase by the same method on the south side of the border. Both expansions...

The rerouted northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline between Hardisty and Steele City, Neb., moved back into the spotlight Friday after a report from the state's department of environmental quality said the project would have "minimal" ecological impacts. Republican Gov. Dave Heineman said he would "carefully review" the 2,000page evaluation and make a decision within 30 days. His recommendation would be forwarded to the U.S. State Department, which is expected to issue its final report to President Barack Obama, who rejected an earlier iteration of the 3,460-kilometre TransCanada Corp. pipeline about one year ago. The new report covers the...

In the wee hours of New Year’s Day, the U.S. Senate approved a hard-fought deal to stave off the dreaded “fiscal cliff.” But that wasn’t the only order of business for the bleary-eyed senators. They also passed, by unanimous consent, a bill that someday could prove an important piece of a plan to bring energy security to Southcentral Alaska. The bill (S. 302) would allow for construction of a natural gas pipeline through Denali National Park and Preserve. The planned pipeline would run 737 miles overall, from the rich gas fields of the North Slope to the area of Anchorage...

Alison Redford’s cabinet is expected to decide in January whether the government will spend $10 million to study the idea of building a rail line to ship oilsands products from northern Alberta to a port in Alaska. The money would help pay for a $40-million study that will investigate the feasibility of a proposed 2,400-kilometre rail line to carry landlocked oilsands products from Fort McMurray to Delta Junction, Alaska. From there, Alberta’s oil would flow through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system to the Valdez Marine Terminal, and on to booming Asian markets. The proposal has been in the works for more...

Energy companies behind the oil boom on the Northern Plains are increasingly turning to an industrial-age workhorse - the locomotive - to move their crude to refineries across the U.S., as plans for new pipelines stall and existing lines can't keep up with demand. ... The environmental fears carry an ironic twist: Oil trains are gaining popularity in part because of a shortage of pipeline capacity - a problem that has been worsened by environmental opposition to such projects as TransCanada's stalled Keystone XL pipeline. That project would carry Bakken and Canadian crude to the Gulf of Mexico. Wayde Schafer,...

The green community is readying to add to these Endangered Species Act injustices, fashioning a new weapon—the American burying beetle. As one liberal blogger puts it, the beetles “have earned the attention both of TransCanada and of environmental groups dedicated to protecting endangered species and interested as well in stopping the [Keystone XL] pipeline’s construction.” [emphasis added].

With President Obama poised to decide whether to allow construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline -- based on a second, more environmentally-sensitive path -- critics now appear focused on derailing the project over a climate change study. TransCanada Corp. submitted a revised application after the president rejected the first one in January because it took the 1,700-mile-long pipeline across an aquifer in Nebraska. However, environmental groups say producing oil from Alberta tar sands releases more carbon dioxide than conventional drilling, which would increase global warming, and that studies on the first application were inadequate. Jeremy Symons, of the National Wildlife...

In anticipation of a long-awaited Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) public hearing on TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL (KXL) oil pipeline, the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday urged President Obama to approve the project. The DEQ's final hearing is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Central time Tuesday in Albion, Neb. On Oct. 30, 2012, the agency released its draft report on a revised KXL route that avoids the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region in northeastern Nebraska. "With today's final [Nebraska] public hearing, the DEQ can conclude deliberations on this project," said API Central Region Director John Kerekes in...

A mysterious blob of frozen soil, rocks and trees is creeping toward the Dalton Highway, threatening to block the haul road that serves as a lifeline for Alaska's oil and gas industry. It could happen as soon as end of the decade. University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers who have been studying the slow-moving landslide just south of the Brooks Range since 2008 say it is crawling closer to the highway every day. The scientists suspect climate change may have caused the 300-foot-wide finger of debris -- once thought to be motionless -- to gain speed as it slides toward the...

Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations whose name has been floated as a possible secretary of state nominee, may soon face opposition from the environmental lobby over what the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) called a potential financial conflict of interest on Wednesday. According to her May 2012 financial disclosure, Rice has an investment in TransCanada Corporation worth between $300,000 and $600,000. TransCanada is angling for the State Department’s permission to build the final portion of the Keystone XL pipeline — a 1,700-mile conduit for crude oil between Canadian deposits and Texas refineries. If she were confirmed...

The Alberta government is paying the price for the success of efforts to develop the oilsands and the failure to develop pipelines to get that oil to market. The price - as measured by what is known as the differential, or discount, from global benchmark crudes - is currently about $29 on each of the 2.5 million barrels of oil pumped every day in Canada's biggest oil-producing province. That works out to $72.5 million a day. Over a year, that's $26.5 billion of potential revenue not circulating in the provincial economy. Finance Minister Doug Horner cited widening differentials as the...

Warren Buffett is by now no stranger to the national debate over federal tax policy. In 2009, he penned a New York Times op-ed calling for "truly major changes in both taxes and outlays." Two years later, he returned to the Times with a widely publicized call for large tax increases on the "super-rich," noting that his own effective federal tax rate (17 percent) was far less than his employees' rates (ranging from 33 to 41 percent). President Obama liked the idea so much, he called for Congress to pass "the Buffett Rule" in his 2012 state of the union...

A $21 price difference between crude oil in Midland and Cushing, Okla., is an all-time high, as oil production in the Permian Basin far outpaces the pipeline infrastructure to move it. The spot price for West Texas Intermediate crude was about $87 per barrel this week in Cushing – the delivery point at which the U.S. benchmark oil is priced – versus $65 per barrel in Midland. The two only differed by $3 in October, according to a Wells Fargo report. “If I produce a barrel of oil in the Permian, my ability to move it to market is restricted,”...

Now that the election is over, nine Republican and nine Democrats have asked the president to stop making excuses and build a job-creating pipeline that will close the revenue gap through economic growth. The truly bipartisan group of senators, led by Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and powerful chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, wrote President Obama on Friday urging him to quickly issue a permit for the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring over 830,000 barrels of crude from Canada's oil sands to American refineries every day. "Setting...

I've wondered before about how this new, more "flexible" second-term Obama is going to approach climate change, energy policy, and environmental issues --- I remain unconvinced that "all of the above" was anything more than a rhetorical stalling tactic. I'm betting that we're going to see President Obama's more zealous nature re-reveal itself --- and the Keystone XL pipeline battle that the administration left unresolved before the election is likely to force the issue pretty quick here.Environmentalists (who long ago determined that the pipeline proposal warranted their especial fanatical attention) are planning demonstrations in DC next week to ask the...