The bull run is on
Is Brent crude oil heading toward US$80 a barrel? If the market signals and the pundits are to be trusted, the bull run is on. Oil prices headed to a third straight week of gains on Friday. Brent futures rose 84 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to settle at US$78.09 a barrel, while U.S. West…
If OPEC forecast turns out to be correct, oil prices could go much higher
A strong message is being sent to major global oil capitals: it’s time to cool down the markets. By urging the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies in OPEC+ to open taps – and endeavouring to impact the markets by selling crude oil from strategic reserves – the world’s major oil consumers are…
If the sector disappeared, taxes would have to be increased substantially to provide us with the services we have come to expect
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre Between 1969 and 2019, Canadian parents received $499 billion in family allowance payments and children’s benefits from the federal government. That 50-year cost was matched by $505 billion in revenues to governments from the oil and gas sector – except that such taxpayer cash was collected…
Non-fundamental factors appear to be controlling crude oil market patterns
A number of major events weighed on global oil markets throughout last week. Those factors included: Hurricane Ida; the United States Federal Reserve delaying the tapering off of its economic stimulus; the decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies in OPEC+ to stick to their original output increments; the rising…
Asia’s market is softening
The crude oil rally is stuttering. Having ceded some 15 per cent in prices in recent months, the rally we saw earlier this year has lost steam. Despite talk of growing demand, tightening markets, galloping prices and the call by U.S. President Joe Biden to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies in…
U of A-led international team estimates the flood from Glacial Lake Agassiz may be largest known in Earth’s history
A flood of epic proportions drained at a rate of more than 800 Olympic swimming pools a second from a glacial lake that spanned the Prairie provinces more than 12,000 years ago, according to a University of Alberta-led study. The finding bolsters a theory that the event may have propelled the warming Earth back into…
The summer driving season is upon us and Americans are hitting the road in much larger numbers than a year ago
Crude oil markets face an interesting mix of influences. While the COVID-19 Delta variant continues to affect the markets, conflicting signals seem to push oil prices in the opposite direction. Reports confirm that American oil consumption is rushing back much faster from the pandemic slump than initially predicted. The summer driving season is upon us…
Declining Chinese demand, a rising rig count in the United States and a devastating resurgence of COVID-19 in Asia all play a role
It has been a fluctuating week for the oil markets. In the immediate aftermath of the agreement within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies in OPEC+, crude prices fell by a devastating seven per cent on July 19. However, with signs of demand holding despite the spread of the Delta COVID-19 variant,…
Ignoring its potential would be a missed opportunity
In 1950, Canada faced a difficult choice between the desire to be a leader in the development of nuclear energy technology and the fear that such technology would bring the end of the world a little closer. Despite concerns related to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Canada elected to be in the vanguard. As…
All eyes are focused on Saudi Arabia. Will it continue to single-handedly maintain stability in the markets?
Uncertainty has overtaken the crude oil markets again for several reasons. Since March, crude oil markets have mostly been ascending. But prices declined last week by a greater margin than any time in the last four-plus months. And the resurgence of COVID-19 in many parts of the world is clouding the near-term future of oil.…
Nokomis Craft Ales is putting Nokomis, Sask. on the map – defying conventional thinking that only the big city yields success
Troy Media publisher Doug Firby and Travel editor Lisa Monforton are part of a group of Canadians who call themselves ConnecTour. Starting in May in British Columbia and ending in October in Newfoundland, they hope to make an 8,000-km bicycle journey across the country, discovering how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives and our…
Centerra is being held hostage by Kyrgyzstan but, fortunately, it is no longer part of a Crown corporation so taxpayers aren't on the hook
Centerra, a mid-size Canadian gold-mining company, is engaged in a legal and political dispute with the government of Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia with a chronically unstable and fractious political class and culture. Its main asset, the Kumtor mine, is in that troubled land and the source of roughly half of its…
‘I threw down my bike and ran over to her. She was lying still on the pavement, entangled in her bike'
Troy Media publisher Doug Firby and Travel editor Lisa Monforton are part of a group of Canadians who call themselves ConnecTour. Starting in May in British Columbia and ending in October in Newfoundland, they hope to make an 8,000-km bicycle journey across the country, discovering how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives and our…
Sandra, 69, continues to run the antique store even though she lost her beloved husband Rich three years ago
Troy Media publisher Doug Firby and Travel editor Lisa Monforton are part of a group of Canadians who call themselves ConnecTour. tarting in May in British Columbia and ending in October in Newfoundland, they hope to make an 8,000-km bicycle journey across the country, discovering how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives and our…
Discovery means the nationally threatened Gibson’s big sand tiger beetle is more at risk than previously thought
An undergraduate research study has found that a threatened type of beetle found in Saskatchewan and Colorado is, in fact, made up of two genetically distinct subspecies. The discovery has important implications for conservation efforts for the insects and shows that both populations of Gibson’s big sand tiger beetle are more threatened than previously thought.…
Vacuous electoral promises and virtue-signalling schemes won’t deliver the outcomes Indigenous Canadians need
Canada has consistently failed to make progress commensurate with the many lofty pronouncements and expectations on the Indigenous file. It’s a national shame that most Indigenous Canadians on reservations live far below acceptable socio-economic standards. Money isn’t the problem. By 2022, the federal budget allocations to Indigenous will have doubled since 2016 to nearly $25…
But much still depends on United States-Iran nuclear talks and how OPEC+ members will react to any deal
Crude oil markets are hot. Prices are up and the US$75 line has been breached. Chatter about oil touching US$100 is getting loud and clear. Global oil consumption is getting closer to the pre-pandemic levels. The bleak clouds hanging over the crude oil horizon are beginning to dissipate. Industry eyes are again on the Organization…
It’s time provincial premiers return to evidence-based policy and govern in alignment with our constitutional freedoms
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe recently urged his citizens to get vaccinated in a three-minute plea filled with dubious claims and faulty logic. It’s irksome that any executive assistant or speechwriter got paid to compose such nonsense. Moe said: “Those who have chosen to not get vaccinated, you will continue to be at risk of not…
An economic burden for future generations
The debt in Canada’s Prairie provinces has grown colossally during the COVID-19 pandemic, just as debt has in the rest of Canada and around the world. At the end of 2020, Alberta’s debt was estimated at $98 billion, Manitoba’s was $28.6 billion and Saskatchewan’s was $15 billion. These debts are an economic burden for the taxpayers…
US$100 oil is a distinct possibility
The world needs more oil. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and American shale oil producers all need to up their output to keep the rising prices of the “super cycle,” as Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman called it, under control. Media reports say Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the Robin…
The IEA concedes rising oil demand at odds with its call to end new oil, gas and coal funding
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is torn between two conflicting ends. On one hand, it’s grappling with climate change issues; on the other, it sees rising oil prices. For now, the two ends seem to be running parallel but not converging. Oil demand is rising fast, as are prices, reaching multi-year highs on Friday. Brent…
IEA wants all investments in new developments to stop. Others warn that could lead to $200 a barrel oil
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies in OPEC+ are on a collision course with energy watchdog International Energy Agency (IEA) on at least two counts. Last month, the Paris-based IEA delivered the starkest warning yet on fossil fuels, saying the exploitation and development of new oil and gas fields must stop this…
Anyone who thinks the U.S. can do without Canadian oil, especially heavy oil, is misinformed. Canadian oil is critical to the Americans
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre The United States banned exports of crude oil in the mid-1970s, as the result of an oil embargo directed at the U.S. by Middle Eastern countries. The embargo began as a result of American support for Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In response, some…
Alternative energy and calls for the world to overcome its reliance on fossil fuels gaining currency
The short-term prognosis for crude oil looks exciting. But that may be a mirage. The approaching summer driving season in the Northern Hemisphere and the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions have stimulated demand. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies in the expanded OPEC+ appear confident that with the accelerating vaccination programs and…
The current turmoil could weaken budgetary discipline, leading governments into long-term spending and increased debt
At the end of 2020, Alberta’s debt was estimated at $98 billion, Manitoba’s was $28.6 billion and Saskatchewan’s stood at $15 billion. These debts are lower than Quebec’s ($220 billion) and Ontario’s ($448.9 billion), but there are concerns about their sustainability. Indeed, they’re a long-term burden for the governments, the taxpayers and the economy. Debt growth…
Higher wages and better productivity contribute to an industry that’s a dominant part of Canada’s economy and its GDP
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre It’s hard for anyone but mathematicians and economists to conceptualize numbers in the billions. To get around that problem, and as a prelude to comparing major Canadian industries, let’s start with a smaller number and a question: How would you like to make $2,740 every week?…
Are we prepared for the economic consequences of shutting them down?
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre There’s nothing like real life as a corrective to Disney-like musings, where fantasies are concocted absent any connection to reality. The newest example comes from a recent ransomware attack directed against Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline. The American pipeline company, which ships 100 million gallons of refined fuel…
Biden seems to have slackened America's tight grip on Iranian crude exports reigniting a market share battle within OPEC
Iran and the United States are closing in on reviving the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly termed as the Iran nuclear deal. U.S. President Joe Biden is keen to strike a deal before the June presidential elections in Iran, which hardliners are projected by many to win. All this has significant bearing…
First BCRC-Hays Chair in Beef Production Systems at the U of A to play a key role in building a more sustainable and competitive industry
Gleise M. Silva grew up in Recife, Brazil, a city perched on the turquoise edge of the Atlantic, home to lush forests, stunning beaches and 17th-century architecture. And yet, while living and studying in the “Brazilian Venice,” Silva found herself overwhelmingly drawn towards a subject she would never encounter in her hometown. “I was 100…
We have to beware tyrannies and autocracies that use oil and natural gas as weapons
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre History shows tyrannies and autocracies use oil and natural gas as weapons when interacting with democracies. This is obvious during wars – tanks and jets don’t run on vegetable oil – as well as peacetime. For example, in 2009, Russia cut natural gas supplies to Ukraine in…