CAGC

By: Gordon Jaremko A long-time observer of the Canadian oil and gas industry and the political structures that govern it, Gordon Jaremko has been, at various times, an author, an editor of Oilweek, a national correspondent based in Ottawa, a provincial political pundit based in Edmonton and a daily business reporter in both Calgary and Edmonton. Gordon was introduced into the Canadian Petroluem Hall of Fame in September.  Article originally published in the November 2015 issue of Oilweek. Can be viewed online with a subscription:  http://www.oilweek.com/index.php/digital-editions/672-wider-view   With a keen appetite for oil-burning mobility, consumers spend more on driving than eating The nation’s largest refinery responds to markets. Consumer behaviour across Canada and the U.S. says Irving Oil made a winning bet this fall by spending $200 million on the giant plant in its hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick. The firm’s Operation Falcon employs nearly ...

By: Mike Doyle, President, CAGC 2015 November Recorder article. Can also be found here:  https://www.cagc.ca/index.php?DP=recorder_articles     Let’s talk about Canada’s economy. The commodities boom, which had shielded Canada from the worst effects of the global financial crisis, has ended, revealing economic malaise. GDP and productivity have been growing at a plodding pace, firms do not innovate enough and infrastructure is overburdened. Consumer debt and house prices are very high. Business investment and exports have yet to take over from indebted consumers as motors of economic growth. Prairie conservatism has been replaced with power shifting back to central Canada. Can manufacturing come back? Will embarking on a new path move us forward to a better place? The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a legacy from the previous government, may yet survive under the new regime. However trade agreements always come with winners and losers and each country has to ba...

By: Josie Le Blond Article originally published in European Energy by the Financial Times on October 13, 2015. It can be found here:  http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/719ea15e-68fa-11e5-a57f-21b88f7d973f.html#axzz3pJcEjACC    Germany has long led the way in global green energy innovation. But ahead of UN climate talks this December, some say the country’s new reliance on coal means it has lost the moral high ground on emissions. Europe’s leading economy still flaunts its virtuous climate track-record abroad. It was on show during recent state visits by Angela Merkel, the chancellor, to Brazil and India, two of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. Yet back at home, observers warn Germany’s powerful coal lobby is frittering away the nation’s reputation as a green Wunderkind . “The coal problem must be solved if Germany wants to be celebrated once again as a leading voice on climate change,” says Claudia Kemfert, head of the energy, transportati...

By: Resource Works Originally posted Resource Works' blog on June 27, 2015 and can be found here:  http://www.resourceworks.com/everyday_connections     Five insights into the benefits derived from our interaction with natural resources and how they are distributed Without natural resources, we'd be naked – and we mean that in a literal as well as a figurative sense.  Resource Works has taken this fundamental observation to heart and become British Columbia's only non-profit asking the toughest question of all: how do we humans maintain a fair society with opportunities for all while also protecting the environment? So it's essential to build healthy dialogue about what exact benefits come from our interaction with natural resources and how those benefits are distributed. Here are five insights we've developed since the launch of Resource Works in April 2014: 1.  Productive public dialogue is the key to BC's natural resources fut...

By: Peter Radevski Article originally published by the BOE Report on October 9th, 2015, and can be found here:  http://boereport.com/2015/10/09/industry-critics-misunderstand-gdp-breakdowns/   Central Alberta Drilling Rig With Canada’s election cycle heating up, and little more than a week to go, it should not be surprising that some very questionably presented figures have been thrown around by industry detractors. A particularly egregious example of this is a  figure  that has been making its rounds in the past few months, namely that the oil sands contribute “only 2 per cent [to] the national  GDP.” As a preliminary matter, it makes very little sense to include only the oil sands’ share, unless the goal is to further minimize the oil & gas industry’s overall importance to the economy. The 2% figure is attributed to Statistics Canada (StatsCan). There is no cause here to dispute the accuracy of the raw statistic itself, but stati...

By: Mike Doyle, President, CAGC Article originally published in the Fall 2015 version of CAGC's quarterly magazine, The Source. Entire magazine and original article can be found here:  https://www.cagc.ca/resources/source_magazine/1503/    As I write this we have seen twelve (12) months of a downturn caused mostly by the price of oil however the price of natural gas has languished for more than five (5) years so with both down our Canadian Industry is very much challenged to survive. Supply of oil continues to outpace demand and in some sense the Saudis feel they can outlast Non-OPEC producers (Canada included) and maintain their market share going forward. In the past when they have lowered output to keep the price of oil up it has encourage Non-OPEC producers to increase output. Canada is the world’s fifth largest combined oil and gas producer. Of all major hydrocarbon producing jurisdictions, Canada is the only one facing active and vocal domestic and internat...

By: Lucas Silva, CAGC Article originally published in the Fall 2015 version of CAGC's quarterly magazine, The Source. Entire magazine and original article can be found here:  https://www.cagc.ca/resources/source_magazine/1503/html5/index.html     The energy industry in Canada has been facing a heavy dose of environmental activism for years. Greenpeace, for example, originated in Vancouver in 1971. Greenpeace’s activism is well known amongst the public, and their distaste, along with many other environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGO’s), for resource industries is blatantly obvious. What else is obvious in this equation? The industry’s apparent lack of motivation to stop ignoring it. Greenpeace started out with a much different approach than what they have now. Co-founder, Patrick Moore, explained that they started with a strong humanitarian perspective, saving civilization from nuclear war. They helped stop hydrogen bomb testing off the coast of Alask...