Hopes for as much as $30 billion to help sector survive double hit
Alberta’s Minister of Energy Sonya Savage expects the federal government to announce a “liquidity package” this week that would help oil and gas companies in her province survive through the severe price collapse caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Price of Canadian oilsands crude plunges to lowest level on record — and could be headed to $0
The cost of buying a barrel of Canadian oil fell to less than a Barrel of Monkeys on Thursday as the oil price again crashed to record levels.
Western Canadian Select (WCS) was selling for $6.45 US a barrel Thursday, down $2.84 US from a day earlier. That's below last week's record when it sold for as low as $7.63 US a barrel.
Some Canadian organizations are asking the federal government to focus any bailout of the oil industry on workers and families, not corporations.
The request comes in an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, released Tuesday morning and signed by environmental organizations, faith and labour groups that the signatories say represent about 1.3 million people.
“Giving billions of dollars to failing oil and gas companies will not help workers and only prolongs our reliance on fossil fuels,” the letter says.
Announcement came hours after Alberta announced it struck deal with First Nations over project
Vancouver-based Teck Resources has withdrawn its application to build a massive oilsands project in northern Alberta.
The federal government was slated to make a decision on whether or not to approve the $20.6-billion, 260,000-barrel-per-day Frontier project next week.
Sources close to the project confirmed to CBC News the application was withdrawn.
The gas plays a powerful role in driving up global temperatures.
A new study published in Nature may have ended a long scientific debate about the key source of rising methane levels in the atmosphere.
It found that methane emissions from human activities — mainly fossil fuels — are probably 25 to 40 per cent higher than previously estimated, while natural sources of methane emissions are up to 90 per cent lower than previously estimated.
"Projects that enable fossil fuel growth at this moment in time are an affront to our state of climate emergency, and the mere fact that they warrant debate in Canada should be seen as a disgrace."
