The U.S. state of Alaska has reached a settlement with Exxon Mobil Corp and its partners to develop a huge, long-fallow oil and gas field, paving the way for a major liquefied gas export plant in the coming years.
The settlement, which resolves lease control at the Point Thomson field about 60 miles (95 km) east of Prudhoe Bay, could allow for liquefied natural gas exports via tanker to Asia and may boost Alaskan oil production after decades of decline.
In exchange for continued lease control, operator Exxon and partners BP and ConocoPhillips have agreed to build a pipeline from the field to deliver 70,000 barrels per day of liquids into the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.
St. Albert realtors are cautiously optimistic that the stable market of the past few years is starting to pick up steam.
First-quarter statistics from the Edmonton Realtors Association show that so far this year 182 single-family dwellings sold in St. Albert. That compares to 146 sales in the same three-month period in 2011 and 165 in 2010.
A total of 45 condos sold this year compared to 53 last year and 73 condos in 2010.
The oil market has broken a two-year cycle of tightening supply conditions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday, as demand softens and Saudi Arabia increases output in response to tensions with Iran.
The agency said in its monthly report that there had potentially been a rise in global oil stocks of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) over the last quarter, and the impact on prices had not yet been fully realised.
`The cycle of repeatedly tightening fundamentals since 2009 has been broken for now,` it said.
Nebraska legislature OKs Keystone Pipeline support bill
OMAHA ` The Nebraska Legislature approved a bill on Wednesday that would provide support for an expected new route for TransCanada Corp`s Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL crude oil pipeline that would bypass an environmentally sensitive region in the state.
Environmental groups have said they plan a legal challenge to the legislation to speed up consideration of a route, which Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman has said he will sign.
An earlier proposed route would have taken the pipeline through the Sandhills region and Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska that provides drinking water to millions and irrigation for farmland, drawing opposition from landowners and environmental groups.
Kinder Morgan plans $5 billion expansion of Trans Mountain pipeline
CALGARY ` With the future of the proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline proposed by Enbridge Inc. looking bleak because of hardening opposition, competitor Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP surged from behind Thursday with a plan for a better-looking replacement ` a $5-billion expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to Vancouver.
The expansion would increase the capacity of the 62-year-old line ` the only one moving oil from Alberta to the West Coast and Asia ` to 850,000 barrels a day, from today`s 300,000.
When gasoline prices ratchet up and it costs a hundred bucks to fill your car, the political comedy starts. Who to blame?
In the United States, the right blames the left and vice versa. Fuel taxes are too high, the American motorist moans, even though taxes in the United States are among the lowest in the world. Newt Gingrich is so outraged about high prices that he vows to slap a $2.50 (U.S.) a gallon price ceiling on gas if he is installed in the White House. At the same time, he supports tighter sanctions on Iran, one of OPEC`s biggest oil exporters, and is calling for regime change in Tehran.
TransCanada submits new Nebraska routes for Keystone pipeline
TransCanada Corp. has proposed a new route for the disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline through Nebraska that avoids the state`s environmentally sensitive Sandhills region.
The Calgary-based company submitted a series of proposed routes ` including a preferred alternative ` late Wednesday to Nebraska environmental officials.
The state has become a focus of concern for the 2,735-km pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast.
SEATTLE ` TransCanada has revealed the route it would like to use to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline through Nebraska, where the $7 billion project has become mired in concerns over the nation's most important agricultural aquifer.
A new report submitted by the Canadian pipeline company to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality shows an alternative route for the pipeline, designed to carry diluted bitumen from the tar sands of northern Alberta province to U.S. refineries. That route would run to the east of the sensitive Sandhills region of northwestern Nebraska.
Alberta's wholesale trade sector outpaces Canadian average
CALGARY ` The wholesale trade sector in Alberta grew at more than double the year-over-year growth for Canada in February, according to Statistics Canada.
The federal agency reported Monday that wholesale sales in Alberta rose 17.0 per cent from a year ago to $6.3 billion while for Canada they rose by 7.0 per cent to $48.5 billion.
Calgary house price gains slower than other centres
CALGARY ` Calgary house price gains compared with a year ago were slower than many other Canadian regions, according to the MLS Home Price Index released Friday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
CREA said the index in Calgary in March was up 2.62 per cent from March 2011.
The MLS HPI is based on single-family, townhouse/row unit, and apartment unit sales activity in Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Calgary, Greater Montreal, and Greater Toronto.
Big risk, big reward: Striking black gold in the oil sands
Over the course of 2012, the dozens of energy companies working to wrest profit from the dark, sticky sands of northeastern Alberta will spend $20-billion, much of it in new projects. How much money is that? It`s almost enough to run the governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan for the year. It`s enough to make a stack of toonies 18,000 kilometres high.
To see inside the boom, we`ve assembled three stories that illustrate the breadth of work the oil sands offers to local businesses ` first nations entrepreneurs among them`and also the immense demands that come with the territory.
City seeking your input on how to give 'ugly' Macleod Trail a makeover
CALGARY ` It`s been called a wretched urban eyesore, strip mall hell and a condo developers` dream, but whatever people are saying about Macleod Trail, the city is listening.
TransCanada eyes oil line expansions south and east
CALGARY ` TransCanada Corp. is advancing pipeline plans to move growing volumes of crude from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast just as it considers linking western Canadian production to new markets in Eastern Canada.
Canada`s largest pipeline company based in Calgary is set to re-apply for U.S. federal approval to build its proposed Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline while it also examines reconfiguring part of its Canadian mainline gas line into a conduit for oil. A repurposed mainline could deliver up to 800,000 barrels per day, according to the proposal, to eastern Canadian refineries eyeing western crude that`s selling at a bargain to world prices.
Residential MLS sales in Calgary have picked up steam of late.
And Cochrane is following suit.
According to data released Friday by the Calgary Real Estate Board, Cochrane sales activity rose by 27 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, keeping the momentum from last year. Sales growth exceeded the 10-year average in Cochrane in 2011, which was not the case in Calgary, says the board.
Chinese trade counsel says Alberta investments will increase "in the near future"
There`s apparently no end in sight in the Middle Kingdom`s investment boom in Alberta.
With more than half of the $20 billion US in total Chinese investment in Canada located in Alberta, there is already a strong base to build from and a recent speech by the Consul General of China in Calgary suggests that more investment will follow soon.
`We expect to see more Chinese investments in Alberta in the near future,` Liu Yongfeng said in an April 10 speech at the Global Business Centre in Calgary. `Besides energy resources, Chinese businesses would love to invest and cooperate with Albertan companies in industries like agriculture, science and technology and in environmental protection.`
CALGARY ` The boom returned with a bang to Alberta, which was home to the country`s fastest growing economy last year, new Statistics Canada figures show.
The federal agency says real gross domestic product advanced 5.2 per cent in 2011 ` the province`s highest economic growth rate since 6.2 per cent in 2006.
