February 2008 Issue
doing business
EPCOR Announces New Office Tower
BY NORDAHL FLAKSTAD
Freelance Writer
 |
RE-IMAGINING DOWNTOWN NORTH |
EPCOR Utilities Inc. plans to make its home a 28-storey building in downtown
Edmonton, northwest of the CN Tower. The utilities company has entered into a
20-year lease at Qualico’s Station Lands to occupy about 265,000 square
feet of the forthcoming EPCOR Tower.
The structure will be certified to a silver standard or higher under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. LEED certification is a widely used standard for reducing energy, water and other resources in buildings.
The tower will bring all EPCOR’s nearly 1,200 downtown Edmonton employees to a single location. Staffing is projected to grow to 1,367 in 2012, once the tower is completed.
Station Lands is a Qualico project designed by Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd. Ledcor Construction will provide construction management services.
Edmonton Focuses
On LRT’s Long Term
The City of Edmonton is taking a long, serious look down the line towards expansion
of its LRT system over the next decades. Apart from work possibly starting this
year to extend the rail commuter line to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology,
a routing plan for a line to the city’s west end is scheduled for release
this spring.
Routing of potential longer-term connections could also be presented, late this year — north to St. Albert and Fort Saskatchewan, south to the International Airport and Beaumont; and west to Spruce Grove and Stony Plain.
CN Rail Acquires
Athabasca Northern
CN Rail is buying the Athabasca Northern Railway Ltd., which links to the oilsands
of northeast Alberta. The 323-km Athabasca line connects with CN at Boyle, 160
km north of Edmonton.
CN’s purchase and rail-line rehabilitation plan are premised on long-term traffic volume guarantees that CN has negotiated with shippers Suncor Energy Inc., OPTI Canada Inc. and Nexen Inc. CN will pay $25 million for Athabasca Northern and invest $135 million in rail-line upgrades over three years to improve transit times and service consistency.
Enbridge and ExxonMobil
Gauge Pipeline Demand
Enbridge Inc. and ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. plan to seek commitments from customers
expecting to use a proposed pipeline system. The Texas Access Pipeline would
transport crude originating in the Alberta oilsands and the upper U.S. Midwest
to Texas refiners.
Proposed for completion in 2011, included in the project are a 1,235-kilometre-long, 30-inch-diameter pipeline to carry the oil from Patoka, Ill., to Nederland, Tex., and a 142-km, 24-inch pipeline to carry it from there to near Houston.
Two More U.S. Firms
Join Stantec Family
Stantec has acquired two more firms, R.D. Zande of Columbus, Ohio, and Fuller,
Mossbarger, Scott & May Engineers of Lexington, Ky. The additions will enhance
Stantec’s existing Great Lakes region, create a new Stantec region in Kentucky
and Tennessee, and add about 600 employees.
The added firms have offices in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina,
Pennsylvania, Georgia, Missouri, Indiana and Tennessee.
Husky, BP
Announce Partnerships On Oilsands Projects
Husky Energy Inc. is teaming with BP to create an integrated, North American
oilsands business.
The Sunrise Oil Sands Partnership will comprise two, 50/50 partnerships — a
Canadian oilsands operation that Husky will run and a U.S. refinery that BP will
run. Husky contributes its Sunrise asset, 60 km northeast of Fort McMurray, and
BP contributes a Toledo, Ohio, refinery.
The move sets aside Husky’s plans for a $2.3-billion upgrading project that would have tripled the output at its existing Lloydminster upgrader.
Husky estimated the Sunrise oilsands reserves at Dec. 31, 2006, to be 3.2 billion barrels. The partnership will proceed with a three-phase development that targets 2012 for production of the first phase of 60,000 barrels per day.
ATCO Receives Approval
For New Transmission Line
ATCO Electric has received regulatory approval from the Alberta Energy and Utilities
Board to proceed with construction of a new, 226-km transmission line that will
support increasing power needs in northwest Alberta.
The line, which will extend from the Wabasca area to the Peace River region,
is expected to be completed in March 2010 for $210 million. The project includes
expansion of two existing substations.
(The approval came before Jan. 1, when the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation
Board and the Alberta Utilities Commission replaced the EUB. A utilities application
today would be made to the AUC.)
Northern Crane Services
Grabs Onto Trans Tech
Northern Crane Services, through its parent company NC Energy Services Ltd.,
has bought Trans Tech Contracting Inc. for $35 million. The acquisition adds
75 employees and 60 rigs to what is Alberta’s largest, independent, full-service
crane operating company.
Maxim Power Selects
Grande Cache For Plant
Maxim Power Corp. of Calgary has unveiled plans for a 500-KW, coal-fired power
station near Grande Cache. The $1.4-billion project would rely on coal from underground
operations.
The proposed site of the generator, scheduled for completion in 2012, is adjacent to Maxim’s 35-year-old, 150 MW, coal-fed plant, 20 km north of Grande Cache. It is one of 32 power plants Maxim owns and operates in Western Canada, the U.S. and France.
Partners to Proceed
With Midwest Uranium
Three companies are partnering to develop the Midwest Uranium Project in Saskatchewan.
AREVA Resources Canada Inc. is in for 69.16 per cent, Denison Mines Corp. for
25.17 per cent, and OURD Canada Co. Ltd. for 5.67 per cent.
Located 15 km west of the McClean Lake operation, Midwest involves draining part of the Mink Arm of the South McMahon Lake in northern Saskatchewan to construct an open-pit mine covering 45 hectares and reaching a depth of 215 metres. Ore will be trucked to the McClean Lake mill for processing.
Total capital cost, including mine development and McClean Lake mill expansion, will be about $400 million. Site construction could begin in mid-2009.
Athabasca Oil Sands Project
Eyes Further Expansion
The Athabasca Oil Sands Project has filed further expansion plans with the Alberta
Energy Resources Conservation Board. The 10-year plan calls for a flexible expansion
developing on regulatory and cost developments, as well as community consultation.
The consortium, owned by Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Canada and Marathon Oil Corp., already has expansion underway to increase output at the Muskeg River mine near Fort McMurray and to add processing capacity at the Scotford Upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan.
Three Groups In Running
To Build Schools
The Government of Alberta has asked three qualifying groups to submit proposals
for public-private partnerships to develop 18 new schools for Calgary and Edmonton.
A successful P3 is expected to be selected by July from proposals from
-
New Alberta Schools, led by Carillion Canada Inc. and Acciona SA
-
B&B Alberta Schools, led by Babcock & Brown Canada ULC
-
Plenary Education Alberta, led by Plenary Group (Canada) Ltd.
Construction could begin as early as fall 2008 and completion is scheduled for
fall 2010.
In addition to the nine P3 schools in Calgary and Edmonton, the government’s
2007/10 capital plan includes
-
82 school projects in planning, design or construction stage
($979.4 million) -
13 new schools opening 2007/08 ($145.2 million)
-
25 modular classrooms ($8.4 million).
PCL Snags Resort Project
PCL Construction Services Inc. has been awarded a $150-million contract as construction
manager for the Viceroy Hotel and Resort in Snowmass Village, Colo. Part of a
$2-billion development by Related WestPac, the 425,000-square-foot complex will
include 186 hotel/condo units, a full-service spa, restaurants and conference
facilities.
Meanwhile, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. continues work on the $537-million Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion, PCL’s largest-ever lump-sum project. During the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and 2010 Paralympics, the expansion will house the International Broadcast Centre, serving more than 10,000 media representatives.
Fort Sask Area
Targeted For CO2 Study
The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada and Alberta Energy Research Institute
will spearhead a study on carbon capture and storage in the Fort Saskatchewan
area. The initiative also involves 17 producers, transportation companies, and
provincial governments funding the $500,000 project.
It is believed that enough carbon dioxide exists or will exist in the area for
commercial-scale enhanced recovery of conventional Alberta oil. The SNC-Lavalin
study will include a review the merits of a compression site to achieve the pressure
required for pipeline transport to major oil pools.
Southeast Portion of Edmonton Ring Road Opens to Traffic
The southeast portion of Edmonton’s Anthony Henday Drive has opened on
budget and on schedule. Built under a P3 initiative, the new leg of the ring
road extends 11 km with six lanes between Highway 2 and 50th Street, and four
lanes between 50th Street and Highway 14. The new road features 20 bridges, five
interchanges and no traffic lights.
Macquarie Essential Assets Partnership provided the financing to Access Roads
Edmonton Ltd., the consortium responsible for designing, building, financing,
operating and maintaining
the new highway.
Appeal Court to Review
Coal Bed Assertions
The Alberta Court of Appeal has allowed EnCana Corp. and Carbon Development Corp.
(formerly Luscar) to appeal a decision by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board
that coal bed methane is separate from the coal itself.
On the basis that the coal bed methane amounted to public property, the EUB in March 2007 granted licences to third parties to drill for it — on properties owned by the two companies now appealing the ruling.
Diavik Announces
Major Expansion
Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. will invest $563 million on its underground operations
300 km northwest of Yellowknife. The investment will be funded by Diavik’s
two owners, Rio Tinto and Harry Winston Diamond Corp., the former Aber Diamond
Corp.
Underground diamond production would begin in 2009 and continue beyond 2020. Existing open pit mining is expected to close in 2012.
National Energy Board
Sees Secure Future For Canadian Energy
A National Energy Board report called Canada’s Energy Future says the country’s
markets are working well and will continue for more than two decades to ensure
supply meets demand. The report looks at the Canadian energy supply and demand
picture up to 2030.
The regulator foresees oilsands production by 2015 rising to 2.8 million barrels a day or 200,000 bbl/d less than earlier projections. The board estimates that $80 billion will be spent on northern Alberta oilsands projects by the middle of the next decade.
The NEB notes that emerging technologies and alternative energy sources are growing fast. However, the board forecasts that, even in the greenest of scenarios, sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and biofuel will meet just 10 per cent of Canada’s total energy demand in 2030.
Dycor Technologies Has New Backer
Midwest Research Institute of Kansas City, Mo., has invested $1.3 million in
Dycor Technologies Ltd., an Edmonton based-company that provides biological detection
technology, equipment and services, as well as data-acquisition technology in
the energy sector.
MRI, a not-for-profit research organization with 1,800 employees in the U.S., performs contract research and laboratory consulting services for clients in government, industry and academia. Established in 1944, it is an independent institute researching national security and defence, life sciences, food and agriculture, transportation safety, energy and the environment.
FURTHER READING
About CN and Shortline Railways
CN Rail Re-acquires Alberta
Shortlines, Doing Business,
March 2006 PEGG Online
About Athabasca Northern Railway
Shortline Railway Offers Opportunities and Solutions, by Tim Green, P.Eng.,
October 2003 PEGG Online.