SKuttlebutt: def: talk of a personal, informative, or chatty nature on popular news and facts
Saskatchewan is a great place to do business where a lot is happening and the future is bright, and not only because of coal, oil, potash or uranium. Welcome to the SKuttlebutt section of the Saturn website where you will find talk about everything from enhanced oil recovery to the Roughriders season-opener.
Saturn SKuttlebutt | June 27, 2011
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Saskatchewan Tops Canadian Energy Investment |
Saskatchewan is the top-ranked Canadian jurisdiction for oil-and-gas investments, according to an annual survey from the Fraser Institute. The Canadian-based public policy research group said Monday that Saskatchewan has surpassed Manitoba, the top-ranked region last year, which finished second this year. Saskatchewan was applauded for its government's long-term stability in energy policy, low royalties and "clear regulatory frameworks."
"Saskatchewan understands the petroleum industry and how important it is to maintaining a prosperous economy," said Gerry Angevine, the Fraser Institute's senior economist.
Alberta was sixth, moving up from eighth last year, with the Fraser Institute noting drilling incentives introduced in May. However, the group said Alberta remains a concern for investors due to "regulatory uncertainty...environmental regulations and the cost of regulatory compliance."
British Columbia dropped to eighth from sixth last year for many of the same arguments held against Alberta, as well as "taxation in general."
Meanwhile, Ontario was third; Nova Scotia fourth; Newfoundland and Labrador fifth; New Brunswick was seventh; Quebec ninth; and the Northwest Territories were tenth. Nunavut and the Yukon were not ranked.
No Canadian region cracked the global Top 10 of this survey. Saskatchewan was the closest, at 11th our of 136.
U.S. states occupied eight of the overall top 10 spots. The top five were Mississippi, Ohio, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
The Fraser Institute says the rankings were based on surveys with 502 senior executives and managers representing more than 60% of annual spending on exploration and production by international oil-and-gas firms.
Saturn SKuttlebutt | April 26, 2011
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Saskatchewan Approves Clean-Coal Project |
Saskatchewan announced Tuesday it has approved construction of a clean-coal project that will transform an aging generating unit into a producer of electricity that cuts greenhouse gas emissions by one million tonnes a year.
The impact of the $1.24-billion clean-coal Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration Project near Estevan, Sask. will be equal to taking more than 250,000 vehicles off Saskatchewan roads each year, and will capture carbon dioxide emissions for enhanced oil recovery, the government announced.
It will be the largest capital project in utility SaskPower's history. The announcement was made at the Boundary Dam facility in Estevan, about 160 kilometres southeast of Regina.
"SaskPower and its private-sector partners are leading the world in the development of a technology that will help to address climate change while ensuring that we can continue to use coal as an energy source for many years to come," said Rob Norris, the minister responsible for SaskPower.
The federal government provided $240 million to assist in the project's development.
SNC Lavalin will oversee detailed engineering, procurement and construction activities at the Boundary Dam project. Cansoly, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell Global Solutions, will supply the carbon capture process. Hitachi will supply a state-of-the-art steam turbine - the first in the world designed to fully integrate a coal-fired power plant with carbon capture technology.
Construction on the project will being immediately, with operations getting underway in 2014. The new generating until will have the capacity to generate 110 megawatts of electricity. In addition to capturing CO2 for enhanced oil recovery operations, the Boundary Dam project will also capture sulphur dioxide to be used in the production of sulphuric acid.
Saturn SKuttlebutt | March 8, 2011
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Oil Industry Looks to be Rapidly Expanding |
The Third Annual Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Forum is in Regina and it believes our province's future is looking up, if you go underground.
Quinton Hardage, President and CEO of Admiralty Oils Ltd., a budding oil company based out of Saskatoon, is one of the speakers. He said our oil industry is rapidly expanding.
"We're starting to see a lot of rigs move over from Alberta and B.C. into Saskatchewan. It just highlights how large and how significant Saskatchewan oil production is and could be in the future," he said. "I see Saskatchewan as Alberta 25, 30 years ago."
Hardage expected that there will be about 3,000 new oil wells drilled in the province this year. He says traditionally, drillling has been focused around our borders.
"The reason that things tend to creep in from the edges of provinces is because they have it defined in other terroritories and states. So, it's lower risk to kind of move across the border than going and punching a hole in the middle of nowhere."
But, he said that will start to change as oil drilling moves into central Saskatchewan. Hardage pointed to stable political, environmental and royalty structures as advantages to drilling here.
