APRIL 2008 Issue
doing business
Edmonton Study Favours Downtown Arena
BY NORDAHL FLAKSTAD
Freelance Writer
An Edmonton committee set up by Mayor Stephen Mandel has recommended a $450-million, downtown arena to replace Rexall Place. Although much of the community appears to be in favour of the idea, less popular is a recommendation that the city foot about 70 per cent of the arena’s costs.
The report — a year in the making and the outcome of a $250,000 feasibility study — calls for borrowing against future tax revenues to pay the city’s share. “We are not going to raise taxes to pay for this,” Mr. Mandel emphasized to the media.
The task force estimates $20 million a year in new tax revenue would come from an economic spin-off including new hotel rooms, retail business and housing.
Billionaire Daryl Katz has said he will put $100 million towards a new arena if the NHL accepts his bid to purchase the Edmonton Oilers.
Oil Companies
Join Call For Lease Halt
Leading oil producers are among the backers of a letter urging the Alberta Government to impose a partial moratorium on oilsands development to free up conservation lands near Fort McMurray.
The letter was prepared by the Cumulative Environmental Management Association. Member signatories include Petro-Canada Corp., Suncor Inc., Husky Energy Ltd., Shell Canada, Imperial Oil, Devon Canada and ConocoPhillips Canada.
Further lease sales should be delayed until at least 2011 in three areas around Fort McMurray, the letter suggests. Fur-ther sales now “would continue to reduce the available options for the establishment of new conservation areas.”
Bruce Power Steps Into
Alberta Nuclear Scene
Bruce Power Alberta hopes to build a nuclear power plant in northwestern Alberta. BPA has bought the assets of Energy Alberta Corp. and also filed an application with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
The company seeks an approval that would allow it to prepare a site for Western Canada’s first nuclear power plant.
BPA’s parent company, Bruce Power, is a partnership of Cameco Corp., TransCanada Corp., and BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust. It is Canada’s only private producer of nuclear power.
Privately held Energy Alberta last fall chose Lac Cardinal, about 30 km west of the town of Peace River, as the site for two potential nuclear power plants with a combined capacity of 2,200 MW. Now, BPA is considering up to four reactors producing a combined 4,000 MW.
The first unit could be ready in 2017, pending the successful completion of a full environmental assessment and consultations with local communities.
NEB Approves
Alberta Clipper Pipeline
The Canadian portion of the Alberta Clipper Expansion Project has earned National Energy Board approval. Enbridge Pipelines Inc. has succeeded in its application to construct and operate the section of pipeline.
The project is a new, 1,607-km oil pipeline from Hardisty, Alta., to Superior, Wis. The Canadian portion involves construction and operation of about 1,078 km of a 36-inch oil pipeline between Enbridge’s Hardisty terminal and the Canada-U.S. border near Gretna, Man.
The pipeline would have an initial capacity of 450,000 barrels per day. Estimated cost of the full length is $2 billion, with construction to be completed by the end of December 2009.
The board has also approved Enbridge’s applications for the Southern Lights Project, a proposed pipeline to move diluent from the U.S. Midwest to Edmonton. The project involves reversing the flow of Enbridge’s Line 13, which currently transports light synthetic crude oil from Edmonton to Clearbrook, Minn.
Firestone Releases Results
From Geophysical Survey
Of Uranium Targets
Geophysical modelling suggests there’s uranium in a tract of southwestern Alberta land, says Firestone Ventures Inc. of Edmonton. Initial data from the company’s airborne geophysical survey identifies buried stream channels in four priority areas within the 155,000-acre Alberta Sun Uranium Project lands.
“We are very pleased to show results from a non-invasive exploration tool that identifies the location of buried stream channels. These channels may be suitable hosts for sandstone-hosted (roll-front) uranium deposits,” says Firestone Ventures President Lori Walton, P.Geol.
Fort McKay First Nation
And Shell Shelve Plans
Shell Canada and the Fort McKay First Nation have shelved plans to mine bitumen from lands owned by the Aboriginal community, 65 km north of Fort McMurray. The McKay First Nation operates a number of other bitumen-related businesses.
The partners in this situation couldn’t arrive at a feasible business case. Said Chief Jim Boucher: “We continue to enjoy a strong, positive working relationship with Shell in other ventures.”
Shear Minerals Releases Diamond Drilling Results
A 2007 drilling program at the Churchill project in Nunavut has produced additional macro and micro diamonds, Shear Minerals Ltd. of Edmonton and Stornoway Diamond Corp. have announced. The drilling took place at the Kahuna kimberlite dike.
To better understand the size and geometry of the dike, proponents drilled 30 holes from 18 set-ups, totalling 2,333 metres, along a 4.5-km strike length of the dike.
“We have consistently recovered high diamond counts from both drilling and sample pitting along the strike, confirming the homogeneous nature of the Kahuna dike,” says Shear President and CEO Pamela Strand, P.Geol. “These results will be used in conjunction with all the other data sets to assist us in an overall interpretation of the Kahuna kimberlite.”
Alberta Environment Approves Sturgeon County Upgrader
North West Upgrading Inc. has received final regulatory approvals from Alberta Environment for the construction, operation and reclamation of three phases of its North West Upgrader in Sturgeon County north of Edmonton.
Important elements of the project are using gasification to make hydrogen from the heaviest components of the bitumen and the upgrader’s “carbon-capture-ready” design. Carbon dioxide will be sold for use in enhanced oil recovery.
The upgrader will have a total processing capacity of 231,000 bbl/d. Site preparation has started and all three phases of the project are expected to be operating by 2016.
SNC-Lavalin Subsidiary Wins Contract For Financial Facilities
SNC-Lavalin ProFac Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, has been awarded a five-year contract by BMO Financial Group to deliver facility management services to BMO’s Canadian retail branch network. The contractor will provide a wide range of facility-related services, among them building systems maintenance, grounds keeping and housekeeping.
BMO has 970 retail branches, coast to coast.
Rio Tinto Reaffirms
Kitimat Smelter Plans
Rio Tinto PCL has reiterated plans to replace its aging aluminum smelter in Kitimat, B.C. The plans, first unveiled in 2006, are for a new, $2-billion facility.
“We are now moving to final board approval of the project, which may come later in the year,” Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese said in a recent Vancouver speech.
The new plant would increase aluminum production by 40 per cent — while reducing greenhouse gases by 40 per cent or 500,000 tonnes a year.
Federal Court Ruling On
Kearl Project Renders Setback
The Federal Court of Canada has called on a joint federal-provincial panel to specify how intensity-based greenhouse gas targets will control gas emissions at Imperial Oil’s proposed Kearl oilsands mine.
The decision follows a challenge of the panel’s decisions launched by Ecojustice, the former Sierra Club Legal Defence Fund. An Imperial spokesman stressed that the court upheld the bulk of the joint panel’s decision on the 345,000-bbl/d Kearl project.
B.C.’s Northeast
Attracts Gas Seekers
Natural gas explorers are focusing attention on an area of northeastern British Columbia that could be in the same league as the Mackenzie Delta. EOG Resources Canada Inc. has accumulated about 140,000 acres that may have net reserves of about six trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The news comes after EOG drilled three vertical and three horizontal wells in the Horn River Basin.
EOG plans additional development wells in 2008. EnCana Corp., Apache Corp. and Nexen Inc. also hold exploration rights in the Horn River Basin.
EPCOR Starts Up New Turbine
EPCOR has begun operating a new, 43.4-MW, natural-gas-fired turbine at its Clover Bar Energy Centre in Edmonton.
The General Electric LM 6000 unit is the first of three new turbines being installed there. Scheduled for completion in 2010 are the other turbines, both of them 100-MW, General Electric LMS 100 units.
EPCOR is decommissioning its former Clover Bar Generating Station, which dates from the 1960s and 1970s.
TransCanada, Williams
Consider New Pipeline
TransCanada Corp. and an integrated natural gas company from Oklahoma are evaluating a major pipeline to move natural gas from the Rockies to U.S. markets. Williams and TransCanada propose the Sunstone Pipeline — a close to 995-km, 42-inch-diameter pipeline to move up to 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
The project, proposed for service in 2011, would involve constructing a new pipeline parallel to the existing Williams Northwest Pipeline that joins the Opal Hub in Wyoming to Stanfield, Ore. Williams’ northwest system interconnects at Stanfield with TransCanada’s Gas Transmission Northwest system.
Synenco Scales Back
Staff, Project Plans
Synenco Energy Inc. is cutting 60 to 70 people from its 100-member workforce. This staff reduction is part of what the company terms a “narrower focus” for its planned Northern Lights oilsands mining and extraction project.
Synenco-Sino Canada partnership earlier announced plans to prefabricate modules of the oilsands plant in Korea, China and Malaysia, then ship them to northern Alberta via the Pacific Ocean and the Mackenzie and Athabasca rivers.
Northern Transportation Co. Ltd. of Hay River, N.W.T., is reportedly still working on a river-barge import service for other oilsands projects.