Alberta

Alberta’s energy watchdog is responding to a pipeline failure that is believed to have leaked oil into a flowing wetland in northwestern Alberta.

Calgary-based Trilogy Energy Corp. said it discovered the leak Thursday afternoon at its Kaybob project about 15 kilometres northeast of Fox Creek.

The Alberta Energy Regulator said oil emulsion, consisting of half water, half oil, has leaked into a flowing marsh area that isn’t home to fish.

The watchdog said Friday afternoon it was still trying to determine the volume of the spill and whether it affected any wildlife.

FORT MCKAY, Alta. - A major study of air quality in a northern Alberta indigenous community surrounded by oilsands development suggests there is a chance ongoing exposure to airborne chemicals may be damaging people's health.

The study by Alberta Health and the province's energy regulator has found more than a dozen chemicals push past environmental and odour thresholds at least some of the time in Fort McKay First Nation.

Workers at the Suncor Energy Inc. East Tank Farm have voted overwhelmingly to unite with Unifor, joining 4,000 members as part of local 707A at the company’s extraction facilities in northern Alberta.

Unifor is a Canadian energy union representing over 12,000 members, including Newfoundland and Labrador offshore platform workers, Suncor workers in Alberta’s oilsands, Saskatchewan energy crown corporations’ employees, as well as workers in refineries across several provinces.

Sept 16, 2016 CALGARY — The Alberta government has approved three oilsands projects that it says represent about $4 billion of potential investments, though it’s unclear whether any of the projects will go ahead.

The projects include the Blackpearl Resources’s Blackrod project, Surmont Energy’s Wildwood project, and Husky Energy’s Saleski project that together total about 95,000 barrels of potential production.

Shell Canada Ltd. says the first carbon-capture project in the oil sands has successfully stored one million tonnes of carbon dioxide deep underground after a year of operation.

The company, which developed the $1.35-billion Quest project with the help of $745-million from the Alberta government and $120-million from Ottawa, says the project is operating ahead of schedule and under budget.

Back in June, shortly before the Harper-appointed National Energy Board gave a thumbs-up to Kinder Morgan’s oil tanker proposal, the Liberals announced the creation of a new review panel tasked with “restoring public trust in Canada’s environmental and regulatory processes.”

Barely two months later, the panel has failed spectacularly. Not only has the slapdash process failed to restore trust, it has actually dragged our faith in Canada’s pipeline and tanker reviews to historic new lows.

TORONTO, Aug. 18, 2016 /CNW/ - The union bargaining for over 8,500 energy and chemical workers across Canada has reached a three-year deal with Suncor. The collective agreement will set the pattern for Unifor's upcoming negotiations at other companies in the industry.

View Oppose Energy East Pipeline videos here: https://youtu.be/ZfCWlTBLDJE?list=PLhiXBRrj94Pf5yUldnUU76rT0NGoFwuTL

If it's ever built, a $22 billion oil refinery in Kitimat would be Canada's largest

July 27, 2016 -  Share:B.C. newspaper owner David Black thinks Canada should be refining its oil, not shipping it offshore.

Will the federal Liberal government put up a $10 billion loan guarantee for David Black’s proposed $22 billion low-carbon refinery in Kitimat?

That is just one of the financing issues the B.C. newspaper magnate needs to resolve if he is to succeed in building what he says would be Canada’s biggest – and the world’s cleanest – oil refinery.

July 19, 2016 - Tradespeople at Cenovus Energy Inc.’s two major oil sands projects are trying to unionize and its top executives are fighting back, arguing that a collective agreement would not shield workers from layoffs as the economy slumps, according to an internal company memo.

Unifor, which says it is Canada’s largest private-sector union, is in talks with employees at Cenovus’s Christina Lake and Foster Creek projects. The company rolled out a multifaceted response to the campaign in June, urging employees to reject the pitch.