september 2008 Issue
Doing Business
Provincial Programs Pump Money Into Carbon Capture, Green Transit
BY NORDAHL FLAKSTAD
Freelance Writer
The Province of Alberta will create a $2-billion fund to advance carbon capture and storage projects and a second $2-billion fund to foster energy-saving public transit in Alberta.
Funds will encourage construction of Alberta’s first large-scale carbon capture and storage projects. The province will identify proposals with the greatest potential of being built quickly and significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Green Transit Incentives Program, or Green-TRIP, will help develop the use of local, regional and inter-city public transit, as well as new public-transit alternatives.
Edmonton Plans To Gear up Bike Routes For Better Commuting
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-photo by George Lee |
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BETTER FOR BIKES |
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The City of Edmonton has released a 10-year plan to spend $100 million over the next decade by creating some 500 kilometres of new, marked bicycle routes and by installing bike racks on all city transit buses.
Edmonton already has an extensive multi-use trail system available to cyclists. However, much of it is recreational and does not lead to likely commuter destinations.
Joint Panel Formed
For Joslyn North Mine
To work in conjunction with the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, a joint federal-Alberta panel has been formed to review the proposed Joslyn North Mine project.
Located 70 km north of Fort McMurray, the project of Total E&P Canada Ltd. includes the construction, operation and reclamation of an oilsands surface mine, plus bitumen extraction facilities. It is designed to produce 100,000 barrels per day of bitumen.
In a related development, Total E&P has acquired 94 per cent of the common shares of Synenco Energy Inc. Synenco’s main asset is a 60 per cent stake in the Northern Lights Project, which has the Chinese company Sinopec as its minority partner.
Further Delays Possible
For Major Upgrader
Citing rising costs and regulatory uncertainties, StatoilHydro Canada Ltd. may further postpone start-up of a planned Alberta oilsands upgrader. Regulatory concerns include royalties and federal rules on carbon capture.
The Norwegian company, which bought North American Oil Sands Corp. Ltd. last year for $2.2 billion, had already pushed back the completion date to 2016.
Meanwhile, the company continues to develop the Leismer oilsands project, scheduled to come on stream in 2010 with a daily production of 10,000 barrels.
Feds to Cover
More Highway Twinning
Through Banff Park
The Government of Canada will put $100 million into widening the Trans-Canada Highway through Banff National Park. Prime Minster Stephen Harper announced new twinning of 14 km of highway west of Castle Junction — work that’s expected to be completed by 2012.
Parks Canada has recommended twinning a 33-km section in the Rockies from Castle Junction to the B.C. border. Traffic in Canada’s most visited national park has increased every year for the last decade.
Construction Begins
On Northern Stretch
Of Ring Road
The Government of Alberta has signed a 30-year contract with the NORTHWESTCONNECT General Partnership to design, build, operate and partially finance a 21-kilometre leg of Anthony Henday Drive from Yellowhead Trail on the west side of Edmonton to Manning Drive.
The north leg of the ring road will be free-flow with no signal lights and include eight interchanges, five flyovers and two rail crossings, for 27 bridges in all. Work began in early August and is scheduled for completion by the fall of 2011.
NORTHWESTCONNECT will be paid $1.42 billion, which includes the cost to design, construct, maintain and finance the project. Also under the public-private partnership, the government will advance $500 million during construction and then start payments over 30 years once Anthony Henday Drive N.W. opens to traffic.
Suncor Awards Contract for
Storage Facilities
Suncor Energy Inc. has awarded Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. a $400-million contract to build a storage terminal for Suncor’s Voyageur oilsands upgrader. The award extends an original 2006 contract for the project, scheduled for completion in 2011.
Teck Cominco
Buys Fording
Teck Cominco Ltd. is paying $14 billion for Fording Canadian Coal Trust. The company already has an almost 20 per cent stake in Fording, which itself has a controlling interest in Elk Valley Coal Corp.
Elk Valley, 60 per cent owned by Fording and 40 per cent by Teck Cominco, has five metallurgical coal mines in southeastern British Columbia and one in west-central Alberta. Teck Cominco operates the mines.
Diamond Companies
Expand Nunavut Presence
Committee Bay Resources Ltd. of Edmonton and Indicator Minerals Inc. of Vancouver have acquired more than 58,000 acres of contiguous mineral claims in the area of their existing Borden diamond-exploration play in the Nunavut Territory. The Borden property is on western Baffin Island’s Borden Peninsula.
Plans Call for Expansion
Of Keystone Pipeline
Partners TransCanada Corp. and ConocoPhillips will expand the Keystone crude oil pipeline system. By 2012, it will provide additional capacity of 500,000 barrels per day from Western Canada to Port Arthur, Tex., on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The expansion is expected to cost $7 billion US and will increase capacity of the pipeline system to 1.1 million bbl/d from 590,000 bbl/d. Expansion will boost total capital investment to $12.2 billion US.
Portions of the Keystone currently being built will deliver crude from Hardisty, Alta., to Wood River and Patoka, Ill., and Cushing, Okla., by late 2009 and late 2010. Deliveries to the Gulf Coast are forecast to begin in 2012.
Meanwhile, Lockerbie & Hole Inc. of Edmonton has been awarded a $53-million contract to construct eight oil pumping stations for the Keystone pipeline project. Four of the stations are located in Saskatchewan and four in Manitoba.
In addition to installing 10,000 feet of piping, Lockerbie & Hole will perform all electrical, instrumentation, mechanical, piping and civil construction to convert the existing stations from natural gas to crude oil service.
In related news, Enbridge Inc. has hinted that completion of its Texas Access pipeline will likely be postponed by two years until 2014. The project has ExxonMobil Corp. as a partner and calls for moving Alberta crude to Texas via Patoka.
ATCO Structures
Tapped for Huge Housing Job
A subsidiary of ATCO Structures of Calgary and partner Al Habtoor Engineering, part of a leading construction and engineering group in the Middle East, will design and manufacture a 20,000-person housing complex for workers in the United Arab Emirates.
The new village will support development of the $27-billion Saadiyat Island tourist and cultural district in the UAE capital city, Abu Dhabi. ATCO’s Australian subsidiary and Al Habtoor will open a modular manufacturing plant and sales office in Abu Dhabi.
Matrikon Teams Up
With Indian Firm
Matrikon Inc. of Edmonton has entered into a joint entity agreement with India’s SoftDEL Systems Pvt. Ltd. The resulting new corporation will support Matrikon’s product development initiatives and provide project consulting around the world.
SoftDEL Systems is an international provider of product engineering solutions with offices in India, Japan and the U.S.
Anand Vishnubhotla, P.Eng., former branch manager of Matrikon’s Edmonton office, will oversee Matrikon’s operations in India.
General Dynamics Receives
LAV Maintenance Contract
General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada will provide a full range of lifecycle support services for the wheeled light armoured vehicles of Canada’s military. The Government of Canada awarded the $374-million contract.
General Dynamics Land Systems, the Canadian company’s parent corporation, is a business unit of General Dynamics. Work on the LAVs will be done at the company’s plants in Edmonton and London, Ont.
Services provided under the contract include fleet management, supply support, repair and overhaul, major vehicle repair, obsolescence management, and engineering and technical services.
New System
Will Distribute
Carbon Dioxide
An Alberta-based energy company plans to build a carbon dioxide transmission system through Central Alberta. Privately owned Enhance Energy Inc. has announced a system capable of gathering CO2 from several sources in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, then transporting it for use in production to existing, mature oilfields throughout south-central Alberta.
“Besides the enormous environmental benefits to Alberta, the pipeline system will benefit Albertans through the jobs it will provide and the incremental royalties and taxes it will generate through enhanced oil recovery,” said Susan Cole, P.Eng., Enhance president.
Contracts for the design and project management of the Enhance CO2 Pipeline System have been awarded to Sunstone Projects Ltd. Other technical and support contracts have been awarded to Synergas Technologies Inc. for facilities engineering.
Shell to Take Over
Duvernay Oil Corp.
Through Shell Canada Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell will pay $5.9 billion to acquire Alberta producer Duvernay Oil Corp. Duvernay’s board voted unanimously to recommend the offer to shareholders.
The company holds some 450,000 acres in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It has reported over 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production, predominantly in natural gas, with plans to increase production by 2012 to around 70,000 b.o.e./d.
Partners Sought
For Pioneering Plant
To Convert Coal
Alter NRG Corp. of Calgary is seeking partners as it proceeds with Canada’s first plant to convert coal to transportation fuel.
To be located at Fox Creek, Alta., the facility will produce up to 40,00 bbl/d. Alter NRG holds four coal leases in the Fox Creek area. Project engineering will occur in 2008 and 2009, and the company has targeted 2014 for production to begin.