November 2009

[Ally]

Nexen unveils Horn River growth plan

CALGARY - Nexen Inc. will spend $200 million on its Horn River shale gas play in British Columbia over the next year to quadruple its current output, chief executive Marvin Romanow said at an investor conference in New York Tuesday.

And he added during the webcast presentation that the company plans to triple its gas capacity from the area again in the following 12 months.

The company will drill eight 1,800-metre horizontal wells this winter and will use 18 fracture stimulations in each well to destroy the rock and allow gas to be recovered, Romanow said.

In last year`s program, the company was using only 10 "fracs" per well.

"A year ago, we were producing two million cubic feet a day, today we are producing about 15 mmcf/d (from five horizontal wells)," Romanow said in answer to a question about shale gas production.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

B.C to jack up HST threshold on new Housing rebate to $525,000

The provincial government is throwing the home-construction sector a Harmonized Sales Tax break, raising the threshold for its maximum tax rebate and extending the deadline for when the HST will apply to new housing.

The provincial government announced on Thursday that the threshold for which the maximum HST rebate will apply will be raised to $525,000 from $400,000, and the harmonized tax will not be levied against pre-sale homes for which the buyer signed a purchase contract prior to Nov. 18.

Previously, the tax was to apply to new homes for which buyers took possession after July 1, 2010.

The announcement effectively neutralizes the HST on homes priced under $525,000, and increases the maximum rebate offered to homebuyers purchasing houses over the threshold to $26,250 — up from $20,000 under the old threshold.

In making the announcement, Finance Minister Colin Hansen said "we heard the concerns from consumers and industry."

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canada Line delivers 15,000 extra visitors a week to River Rock Casino

METRO VANCOUVER — The River Rock Casino Resort is making it much easier for gamblers to spend their money.

As part of a $30-million renovation, gamblers and other visitors can now get off at the Canada Line`s Bridgeport Station and walk directly to the casino via a new covered walkway (called the Starwalk) to the resort`s third floor. The Starwalk is also linked to the adjoining parkade and bus loop.

Once in the resort, customers hop on a first-of-its-kind-in-Canada spiral escalator that drops them on the doorstep of dozens of slot machines and gaming tables.

It appears to be a smart business move, with up to 15,000 extra customers heading to the casino each week following the opening of the Canada Line in August.

"We`ve seen a 15-per-cent increase in guests since [the Canada Line] opened," Howard Blank, River Rock`s vice-president of media, entertainment and responsible gaming, said in an interview Thursday. "And we think this will grow with this renovation. There`s a lot of older folks from Oakridge, Kerrisdale and Yaletown who didn`t want to drive here. And there`s also a lot of the [younger] hip crowd coming here [via the Canada Line] so they can drink and not have to drive.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Pipeline to West Coast gains backing

Commercial support is building for a new pipeline to carry oil sands crude on its way to Asia, as Canada`s energy industry seeks diversification from the U.S. market and an escape valve from potentially punitive climate-change regulations.

For years, two major West Coast oil pipeline projects have languished without enough momentum to build the multibillion-dollar infrastructure required to take bitumen from the Fort McMurray, Alta., region to tidewater.

In 2005, when Enbridge Inc. (ENB-T44.10-0.12-0.27%) sought shippers for its Northern Gateway project, an 1,170-kilometre pipeline capable of carrying 525,000 barrels per day to the British Columbia coast, support was too low and the proposed project lost traction.

By early next year, however, Enbridge expects to announce for the first time that it has secured "solid" commercial backing for Gateway, marking a major step forward in the country`s plans to diversify its oil exports.

That comes amid a shifting of the landscape, as industry executives, politicians and economists increasingly promote the idea that it is risky to rely solely on the United States to buy Canadian crude, especially as the oil sands grow in importance and demand for oil stagnates south of the border.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Size Matters: B.C. Lumber sales to China suffer

SHANGHAI — British Columbia has only a small slice of the growing Chinese lumber market because most forest companies are shipping lumber cut to North American — not Chinese — specifications.

Distributors, sawmillers and lumber remanufacturers alike say they love Canadian wood and would buy even more of it if they could get it in the lengths they prefer.

"For B.C. lumber into China, the greatest issue is length," Ken Cao, deputy manager of one of the country`s major wholesale distribution companies, China National Building Materials, said in an interview at the company`s warehousing facility on the outskirts of Shanghai.

CNBM has built a massive new facility at Shanghai`s new Taicang port with the space to hold much more inventory of B.C. wood.

China`s demand for wood products is growing along with its economy but forest-rich Canada accounts for only 11 per cent of China`s lumber imports. Russia accounts for 25 per cent and more than half China`s log imports.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

B.C. better start finding Carbon Credits at Home

For the last year I`ve been on an admittedly geeky quest during my vacations. I have criss-crossed the planet, hunting down the million-dollar deals involving what many think will be a commodity as big, or bigger, than either oil or gold.

I`ve been carbon-credit hunting.

My exploration through the carbon world, which has turned into an hourlong film Carbon Hunters, took me from Mumbai to Washington, D.C., from Manila to London, and a few places in between. It slowly dawned on me that this isn`t a crazy fad -- it`s a multi-billion-dollar industry.

One of the revelatory moments happened right here in B.C., in Clayoquot Sound.

I was on the tiny island that is the home of Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. As the grey sky emptied on the rain forest, Atleo told me something few people know.

A few years ago an oil company -- energy companies have been some of the earliest players in the carbon credit game -- approached him. They wanted the Ahousat First Nation to set aside a vast track of forestry.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

B.C. Home affordability takes a hit as prices rise in tightened, hot Market

It`s getting harder to buy a home in B.C. as an increasingly hot real estate market pushes prices higher, according to an RBC report on housing affordability released Wednesday.

"We`re talking about a very expensive market in Vancouver," RBC senior economist Robert Hogue said in an interview. "Mortgage payments there take a much bigger chunk [of paycheques]. And it appears the rebound in the market has been stronger there than in other parts of the country. It has been quite an astonishing rebound."

According to the report, B.C. and Vancouver posted the biggest increases by far across Canada in the RBC index measures.

"The cost of home ownership in B.C. increased in the third quarter following five consecutive declines -- cumulatively the steepest drop since the early 1990s," the report by RBC Economics Research concluded. "Notable rises in home prices in the province`s large urban centres and the modest pick-up in mortgage rates have boosted typical mortgage payments for the first time since early 2008."

It said the Vancouver market "continues to roar back in a spectacular way and property prices are now heating up closer and closer to a boil."

But that`s no surprise to Cameron Muir, chief economist for the B.C. Real Estate Association, who said Vancouver prices might even be rising faster than the RBC report suggests.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadian Wood finds a Home on top of Chinese Apartments

From the new civic square, still draped with banners celebrating the 60th anniversary of the People`s Republic of China, B.C. carpenter Steve Ross can look with pride at Canada`s small but significant contribution to changing the face of this northern Chinese city.

Across the street from the square is a cluster of the ubiquitous six-storey apartment blocks that fill the skyline of every metropolis in this country.

Only these ones have red-tiled truss roofs, giving the blocky Communist-era housing complex an appealing profile that is part of a nation-wide thrust to beautify urban China. On this day, an unseasonably early snowfall gives the peaked roofs a decidedly Canadian look.

The trusses used in these roofs are made from Canadian wood, and Ross, Canada Wood`s Beijing director, coordinated the team of Chinese tradespeople who installed them.

It was important that they be completed in time for the 60th anniversary celebration, Ross says, to give the Canadian project maximum exposure with the people and officials of Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei province.

In Shijiazhuang, Canada`s name carries a lot of weight. This is the site of the memorial to Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who is considered a Chinese national hero for his humanitarian work during wartime China. He is buried in the nearby Revolutionary Martyrs` Cemetery.

Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Dim Employment prospects lower Consumers` moods

The mood of Canadian consumers -- and especially of B.C. consumers -- deteriorated this month as concern over employment prospects eroded confidence, according to a Conference Board of Canada survey.

The Ottawa-based think-tank said Thursday its monthly consumer confidence index fell in November for the second consecutive month. The index lost 5.7 points to a reading of 79.

Regionally, the biggest drop in confidence was in British Columbia, where the index plunged what the board called "an astonishing 13 points." Ontario also saw a significant drop, down 10.3 points.

"The outlook for future job creation remains a significant detractor to consumer confidence," the board said. "This month`s results highlight just how fragile the perception of an economic recovery is at this time."

When asked if their financial situation was better now than six months ago, 13.9 per cent of respondents said yes. That`s down one point from October and up 0.6 points from the beginning of the year. More than a quarter of respondents -- 25.6 per cent -- said they are financially worse off than six months ago, up 1.8 points from the previous month and 0.8 points higher than in January.

Read the full article here.