JUNE 2005 ISSUE
DOING BUSINESS
New Plant Generates Electricity from Manure
BY NORDAHL FLAKSTAD
Freelance Writer
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This pilot plant at Highland Feeders near Vegreville transforms manure into energy, bio-based fertilizers and re-useable water. |
Working with the Alberta Research Council at a new pilot plant near Vegreville, Highland Feeders, one of Canada ’s largest feedlot operations, is transforming manure into energy, bio-based fertilizers and reusable water.
The Integrated Manure Utilization System combines anaerobic digestion, biogas utilization, liquid/solid separation, nutrient recovery and enrichment processes. Methane produced through anaerobic digestion is used to generate green power and heat.
“This project is a significant development in the field of renewable resource technologies,” said ARC President and CEO John McDougall, P.Eng., an APEGGA life member. “Companies such as Highland Feeders are constantly being challenged to operate in an environmentally sustainable fashion and to be socially responsible. At the same time, they need to be economically viable to survive.”
ARC is adapting this technology to include other biomass sources, such as
liquid manure, food-processing waste, livestock mortalities, rendering materials
and municipal wastes.
Fort McMurray Roads To Be Upgraded
The province will spend $41 million this year within a 10-year, $530-million plan to improve highway infrastructure in northeast Alberta , with particular focus on roads to and within Fort McMurray . The announcement was made before the tragic truck-bus collision that killed six oil sands workers returning to Edmonton recently, and does not mention work on the stretch of highway near Gibbons where the accident occurred.
Work on Highway 63 this year will include four-lane grading from the Suncor Access to north of Mildred Lake , intersection improvements at Thickwood Boulevard , Morrison/Hardin streets, and Gregoire Drive/Beacon Hill in Fort McMurray , and a rest area/commercial vehicle staging area near the junction with Highway 881. An additional 46 km of Highway 881 will be paved this year.
Overall, the plan includes twinning Highway 63 north of Fort McMurray from the Suncor Access to Fort MacKay and south of Fort McMurray to the junction with Highway 881; adding 25 kilometres of passing lanes between the junction with Highway 881 and Highway 55; building commercial vehicle staging areas near Crow Lake Provincial Park; constructing four interchanges on Highway 63 within Fort McMurray; completing the paving of Highway 881; and building a commercial vehicle staging area on Highway 881 near Conklin.
Long-term plans call for a direct highway connection between Nisku and highways
63 and 881 north of Boyle.
Design Contract Awarded For Provincial Museum
Cohos Evamy Partners has been awarded the contract to design the new $180-million Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton .
In a separate development, designs submitted by four internationally recognized architectural teams have been short-listed for the proposed designs for a new Edmonton Art Gallery .
The finalists selected from 25 entries are:
• Alsop Partners, London , U.K. , and Quadrangle, Toronto
• Arthur Erickson/Nick Milkovich, Vancouver , and Dub Architects, Edmonton
• Zaha Hadid, London , U.K.
• Randall Stout, Los Angeles
Husky Puts Price Tag On Sunrise Oilsands Plans
Husky Energy Inc. is considering spending $10 billion to develop its Sunrise oil sands development 60 km north of Fort McMurray . Plans call for thermal extraction rather than mining to recover bitumen. The project will have an eventual capacity of 200,000 barrels per day by ramping up production in 50,000 bb/d increments, starting in 2009. An upgrader would be associated with the initiative.
Husky also is reconsidering shelved plans to raise to 150,000 bb/d the output
at its existing Lloydminster upgrader, which now handles about 77,000 bb/d from
the Cold Lake area.
Well Blowout Costs Acclaim Energy $45 Million
The bills are in for a gas blowout that occurred just west of Edmonton ’s city limits shortly before Christmas. According to Acclaim Energy Trust, costs associated with the 30-day event amount to about $45 million.
The blowout forced the evacuation of nearby residents. Major costs were associated
with drilling a relief well and for a fleet of pump trucks to haul away spilled
water.
Shell Canada Moves Plans Forward
Shell Canada Ltd. has filed regulatory applications to expand capacity at its Muskeg River Mine and Scotford Upgrader.
The project would increase the capacity of the Muskeg River Mine to about 300,000 from 155,000 bb/d. Regulatory approval is anticipated in mid-2006. Combined with the Jack Pine Mine approval of 2004, it would provide Shell regulatory approvals to mine 500,000 bb/d.
The Scotford expansion includes the addition of a third bitumen upgrading
train and debottlenecking to raise output to 300,000 bb/d.
EPCOR Adds Wind Rights With Ontario Purchase
EPCOR has agreed to acquire Ontario-based Port Albert Wind Farms Ltd. The agreement gives EPCOR development and interconnection rights for over 270 MW of wind power near Lake Huron , as well as an existing 660 kW turbine.
The 12,000 acres covered by the acquisition feature a highly favourable wind
regime and are near EPCOR's 39.6 MW Kingsbridge Wind Power Project, at Goderich,
Ont., scheduled for completion in late 2005 or early 2006.
Terasen Expands Express Pipeline
Terasen Pipelines has completed a $100-million expansion of the Express Pipeline at 10 per cent under budget.
The expansion increases the pipeline’s capacity to 280,000 from 108,000 bb/d.
The oil pipeline starting at Hardisty, Alta., connects with the Platte Pipeline system at Casper , Wyo. From there, the Platte system, also owned by Terasen, delivers Canadian and U.S. production to Kansas and Illinois .
The expansion entailed building nine new pump stations and storage for 600,000
barrels.
De Beers Gives Snap Lake OK
De Beers Canada Inc. will proceed with construction of the $636-million Snap Lake diamond mine in the Northwest Territories . It will be De Beers’ first diamond mine outside of Africa and Canada ’s first fully underground diamond mine.
Pre-production development was undertaken on site in 2004 and further preparations for construction have been underway since the beginning of 2005. Snap Lake will begin production in 2007, reaching full production in 2008, and will produce 1.5 million carats annually for about 20 years.
De Beers also has given conditional approval to spending $982 million on
Victor diamond mine, proposed for northern Ontario .
SNC-Lavalin Secures Horizon Contract
SNC-Lavalin Inc. has been awarded a $40-million contract
by Canadian Natural Resources Limited to provide engineering, procurement and
construction management services for the Horizon Oil Sands Project’s froth
treatment plant. This follows an earlier announcement of SNC-Lavalin joint-venturing
with Snamprogetti Canada Inc. to provide engineering, procurement and construction
management services for Horizon, 75 kilometres northwest of Fort McMurray.
Uranium Properties Sold in Alberta
Firestone Ventures Inc. will buy a 9,031-hectare Alberta Sun uranium property, 30 km south of Fort Macleod in southwestern Alberta . Firestone also has received approval for two of four additional metallic and industrial minerals permits in the area.
The total land package controlled by Firestone in three separate areas exceeds 384 square km. The geological target for the Alberta Sun uranium project is sandstone-hosted uranium.
Edmonton-based Firestone Ventures plans an aggressive exploration field program,
beginning June 1 and consisting of sampling, prospecting and mapping, followed
by airborne geophysics, drilling or both.
Ottawa Moves on Mackenzie Logjam
Imperial Oil Ltd. and the others in a five-member consortium building the $7.7-billion Mackenzie Valley Pipeline stopped engineering on the project, saying it’s bogged down in regulatory delays and excessive demands by aboriginal groups to pay for housing and health care.
The federal government responded by agreeing to establish a temporary fund to help pay for N.W.T. social services.
Two native groups have launched lawsuits over the project – the Deh
Cho First Nations and, most recently, the Dene Tha’ First Nation. The Deh
Cho seeks more say in the pipeline review process, and the Dene group says the
government has left it out of negotiations for the 1,220-kilometre pipeline.
Coal Fires Up B.C. Mining Sector
Fueled by strong prices for coal and metals, mining revenues in British Columbia
increased by close to 30 per cent last year, states a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
B.C. mining industry’s net revenues increased by $790 million to $3.5 billion
and profits reached $871 million. Last year, the mining sector spent $73 million,
versus just $15 million in 2003, on exploration and development.
EnCana Continues Shift From Conventional
EnCana Corp. will sell conventional oil and gas assets producing approximately 6,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day to StarPoint Energy Trust for $404 million. The transaction includes properties in central and southern Alberta .
As a result, since the start of 2004, EnCana has divested of some 84,000 barrels of oil equivalent of conventional production, generating proceeds of about $6 billion. The StarPoint sale is EnCana's third substantial divestiture of Western Canadian conventional oil and gas assets in the past year and is part of its planned disposition of more than 20,000 b.o.e. of Canadian conventional assets in 2005.
“Together with the 2004 sale of our U.K. North Sea assets and our recent
agreement for the $2 billion US sale of our Gulf of Mexico interests (to Statoil),
EnCana is continuing to sharpen its focus on long-life North American resource
plays where we expect to achieve reliable, profitable growth in reserves and
production from unconventional gas and oil reservoirs,” said EnCana's President
and CEO Gwyn Morgan, P.Eng.
Canadian Superior Makes Discoveries
Canadian Superior Energy Inc. has outlined gas discoveries in the Drumheller and Windfall areas.
Plans call for commercial production of 2.3 million cubic feet per day at the Drumheller discovery and output of 2.2 million cubic feet per day from the fully and partially owned wells in the Windfall area in west-central Alberta.