Reporters are barking up the wrong tree with this tale, even for the “dog days” of August when real news comes along slower than a basset hound on Valium.
Calgary’s two dailies, along with Canada’s second national newspaper, have been unleashing front-page stories about The Adventures of Molly and Markin.
Molly is a nine-year-old Dalmatian. Allan Markin is chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Canada’s third-biggest independent oil and gas firm.
One national reporter even speculated in her kibbles ’n’ bits piece that a legal tug-of-war over Molly, between Markin and his estranged stepson, might be keeping the oilpatch veteran from his boardroom duties.
Come again? Sometimes, we in the media business could use some house training – in keeping a perspective.
Markin and his estranged wife Jacqueline Flanagan, a high-profile Calgary couple married for 15 years, are going through a divorce. Even reporters with Fidomania should know that divorce is usually painful. And taking time off work can help.
As a couple, Markin and Flanagan were among the city’s most generous philanthropists. They donated millions of dollars to causes that included health-care research, university scholarships and the unique Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Programme.
What will happen now to this couple’s legacy to the community? That’s the real story.
If Albertans ever experience a massive blackout such as the one that paralyzed Central Canada and the eastern seaboard last week, at least one group of condo residents will never be in the dark. That’s because the people who live and work at the home-office condominium in Inglewood in southeast Calgary get their heat and power from a “distributed energy” system.
Distributed energy generates and supplies electricity and heat at the site where the energy is used. These community-based systems tap environmentally friendly energy such as natural gas-fired micro-turbines, wood waste and solar power.
The 12-unit Inglewood condo relies on a combined heat-and-power micro-turbine system pioneered by Mariah Energy Corp. in Calgary.
Small, distributed energy systems provide higher efficiency and a greener alternative to large, centralized, conventional power plants.
They help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and they don’t depend on a massive, interconnected electrical grid.
The Alberta government is fast-tracking new coal-fired power plants and planning a $1.5-billion expansion of power transmission lines. If this province wants to avoid the kind of blackout that happened last week, it should be making a similar investment in distributed energy systems.
Coalbed methane is becoming a hot property in Alberta, even before this natural gas trapped in underground coal seams gets pumped to the surface.
APF Energy Inc. announced last week it will buy Canscot Resources Ltd. for $34.9 million in cash or units of APF Energy Trust. Both companies are based in Calgary.
The acquisition includes Canscot’s two active and five prospective CBM areas in west-central Alberta.
Last month, Nexen Inc. bought the rights to 20,000 hectares in northern Alberta for an undisclosed sum, essentially doubling its CBM holdings.
Texas-based Quicksilver Resources Inc., in its second-quarter report, says its Canadian CBM projects are on track to increase Canadian production of the gas to 15 million cubic feet a day by the end of the year.
MGV Energy Inc., Quicksilver’s Canadian subsidiary in Calgary, has drilled 108 of 176 new CBM wells planned in Alberta this year, along with two new gas-processing plants and 160 kilometres of new pipelines.
Last month, a thoughtful report by the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, an environmental research group, called on the Alberta government to demand environmental impact assessments for large CBM projects.
It’s worthwhile considering, given Alberta landowners’ anxiety and the troubled history of CBM development in the United States.
But there has been no official response yet to Pembina’s report, from either the province or the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas, which represents the CBM industry.
Paramount Energy Trust is sounding more optimistic – albeit still very unhappy – about the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board’s (EUB) decision to shut in more than 900 natural gas wells in the Athabasca oilsands area.
The EUB says the indefinite shutdown is necessary because producing the gas will lower the pressure in the rock formations and hinder the recovery of more valuable tar-like bitumen reserves.
Paramount, in its second-quarter report, says it now expects the Sept. 1 shutdown to affect six to 12 million cubic feet a day, or less than 15 per cent of the total gas production from its more than 220 wells in the area.
The company, which initially warned that half its production could be lost, says “the ultimate impact may be considerably less severe than initially indicated.”
After an outcry from gas producers, the EUB agreed to temporarily exempt wells from the Sept. 1 shut-in if companies provided geological proof that producing their gas won’t threaten future bitumen extraction.
Paramount says it fundamentally believes that “no gas production in northeast Alberta poses a threat to ultimate commercial bitumen recovery that cannot be alleviated by technology solutions.”
It would be helpful then – especially to investors following this contentious issue – if producers such as Paramount and EnCana Corp. would elaborate in public on what exactly these technological fixes are and whether they’re ready for use in the field.
The oilpatch’s stellar second-quarter earnings and continuing high prices for oil and natural gas are fuelling what looks like a record year in oil and gas drilling. The Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) is forecasting a total of 18,470 wells will be drilled this year in Canada, which would be an industry record.
PSAC’s projected count includes 11,229 gas wells and 5,072 oil wells.
Oilfield service companies are also reaping the benefits. Precision Drilling Corp., Canada’s biggest oilfield service company, saw its second- quarter earnings grow 10 per cent, driven by strong demand for its oil rig services.
Smaller Red Deer-based oilfield service companies, such as Cal-Frac Well Services Ltd. and BJ Services Co., are reporting their busiest summer ever.
