Pipeline News North December 2014

R001697746

VOL. 6 ISSUE 12 DIST: 16,000 SERVING THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY IN NORTHERN B.C. AND ALBERTA

PIPELINENEWSNORTH.CA

PIPELINE NEWS NORTHFREE!

DECEMBER 2014 / january 2015

Special Report: B.C.’s LNG takes big step forward in November Page 5

The Fort St. John Petroleum Association held its elections in December at the Lido Theatre,

providing members and guests with food and entertainment in the form of Dueling Pianos.

This year the position of president, treasurer and four directors were up for grabs. Page 5.

fort st. john oilmen hit the ice

2 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH DECEMBER 12, 2014

The next Fort St. John Petroleum Association meeting is on Jan. 8, 2015 @ the FSJ Curling Club. See you there!

54th Annual

Oilmen’s Bonspiel

CongrATulATionS To VerTiCAl Building SoluTionS

For winning The 54Th AnnuAl oilmen’S

BonSPiel!

Thank you to all participants and sponsors for their support.

For more on the Bonspiel turn to pages 20 & 21.

CVS Controls and Vertical Building Solutions aka Camo and Kilts battled back and forth in the “A” final at the Fort St. John Curling Club and it was CVS who came up short on a draw to the button allowing Vertical to score four and snag a 8-6 win. In the “B” event Fraction Energy Services beat out DRS to take home the title. The “C” final was won by Stimulators over D&D Insulators.The “D” final was won by PCR #1 over the Troyer rink. In the “E” final Pimm’s Production Equipment was victorious over Apex Distribution.

Merry ChristMas &

happy New year froM the Board

of direCtors, MaNageMeNt aNd

staff of the fort st. JohN

Co-op petroleuM assoCiatioN!

DECEMBER 12, 2014 PIPELINE NEWS NORTH • 3

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Al Seib / MCT

The following figures were taken from the stories in this issue of Pipeline News North.

PNN NUMBERS

$12.93: The amount that Alberta’s oil and gas land tender pulled in on Dec. 3.

Chart on Page 5.

$64.15: The price Brent crude was trading at on Dec. 12. It has been cut in half over the

past 12 months. Chart on Page 5.

2: The number of Environmental Assessment Certificates issued by B.C. in

November for a project proposed by Malaysian state-owned oil giant Petronas.

Story on Page 5.

$1.7 billion: The estimated cost of the proposed North Montney Mainline

pipeline, which would initially run from an area about 100 km northwest of Fort St. John, travelling about 300 km to the

Groundbirch area. Story on Page 6.

$1.2 billion: MEG Energy Corp.’s capital program next year, the same as this year’s. It estimates production will rise 19 per cent.

Story on Page 8.

$9.21 billion: Alberta’s operational forecast for non-renewable resource revenue for

2014/2015. That includes bitumen, crude oil, natural gas royalties and Crown land

sales. Story on Page 14.

$6 million: Nisga’a First Nation’s take away from a deal signed with the province to

support the construction of a natural gas pipeline through its territory.

Story on Page 24.

2,000: The monthly average number of passengers Dawson Creek Regional Airport

currently handles. Hawkair president Jay Dilley thinks that could triple.

Story on Page 27.

182,059: The number of barrels per day that were exported from Canada via rail in Q3

2014. Story on Page 29.


PNN The Alberta-B.C. LNG

discount (chart)

U.S. gas price (chart)

B.C. land auction

(chart)

Japan gas price (chart)

Alberta petroleum

land auction (chart)

B.C.’s LNG takes big step forward in November

$1.5B pipeline closer to reality

Black Diamond Provides

Operational Update

MEG Sets 2015 Capital budget Of $1.2 billion

New Jersey’s Christie

Touts Keystone XL

Players upbeat on LNG in B.C., Alberta

Look for PNN on FB: pipelinenewsnorth

14 ACCESS TO TiDEwATEr CriTiCAL FOr ALBErTA OiL

16 Oilmen celebrate with their spouses 13 LNG projects in Alberta, B.C. & Oregon

18 Premier on oil strategy, prices

20 Down to the wire at the Oilmen’s Bonspiel

22 ABC ACQUirES NOrTHEAST STEEL

21 NiSGA’A NATiON SiGNS LNG AGrEEMENT wiTH B.C. 25 LNGbuyBC tool available

26 OiL & GAS EXECS GET rED CArPET TrEATMENT

27 Dawson Creek Airport traffic could quintuple

30 ConocoPhillips 4-year hiring campaign

Look for PNN on Twitter @PipelineNN

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Published monthly by Glacier Ventures International Corp.Pipeline News North is politically independent and a member of the B.C. Press Council. The Pipeline News North retains sole copyright of advertising, news stories and photography produced by staff. Reproduction is prohibited without written consent of the editor.

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#oilsands the charts

Oil price

Environmental Assessment Certifi-cates issued by the province in No-vember bring Malaysian state-owned oil giant Petronas one step closer to making a final investment decision for its Pacific NorthWest LNG proj-ect. That decision could now come in Spring 2015.

The moves by Environment Min-ister Mary Polak and Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Cole-man earned virtually universal praise from Northeast B.C.’s politicians.

The Westcoast Connector pipeline, the Pacific NorthWest LNG export fa-cility in Prince Rupert and the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline were all cleared by Environment Ministry in December.

Prince George-Peace River MP Bob Zimmer, one of the Northeast’s repre-sentatives to Ottawa, said he expect-ed Malaysian state-owned oil giant Petronas to make an affirmative final investment decision.

If that were to happen, construc-tion would begin in earnest on pipe-line and liquefaction facilities, paving the way for a major expansion in nat-ural gas production north of Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, where Petro-nas subsidiary Progress Energy’s as-sets are concentrated.

There are legally binding condi-tions attached to each certificate, ensuring that these projects are con-structed and operated within certain guidelines. Some of these include ensuring First Nations concerns and wildlife populations are taken into consideration.

Still, getting these certificates doesn’t mean the projects have leaped all their regulatory hurdles.

To proceed, they still need to get permits from other levels of govern-ment, including an environmental assessment from the Federal govern-ment in the case of the Pacific North-West LNG export facility.

“We look forward to more deci-sions Federally – we still have an as-sessment to complete – and look forward to a favourable output,” said Zimmer, who added that he spoke with industry contacts after the cer-tificates were issued, and they were “quite pleased.”

Zimmer touted the cleanliness of the energy that would be used in China if the LNG boom goes for-ward in Canada, a market in which our country has a transportation advantage over the United States. The MP said that while it will take about a week, give or take, to ship gas from Prince Rupert to China, it could take more than three times that long from the U.S. Pacific coast. See LNG Page 28

B.C.’s LNG takes big step forward in November

david dyckstaff writer

Left, the Henry Hub Natural Gas Spot Price (dollars per Million Btu). Source: U.S. Energy Information Agency

The Japan LNG Import Price fell to a four-year low in December on falling oil prices. Source: World Bank

The AECO “C” spot price, the Alberta gas trading price. Source: Natural Gas Exchange

Alberta gas price

The Alberta-B.C. Natural Gas Discount (ABCD) is the difference in price that a BTU of natural gas costs in Tokyo compared to Alberta. It sits a a four-year low of $9.65.

The alberta-B.C. lng discount

Japan LNG price

U.S. gas price

December 2013 to December 2014


December 2013 to November 2014

The price of Brent crude was cut by half in the past 12 months on oversupply in world markets. Source: U.S. Energy Information Agency

The BC Oil and Gas Commission’s monthly land tender pulled in only $3 million in August, $25 million in September and a record $209 million in October.

Alberta’s oil and gas land tender pulled in $12.93 million on Dec. 3. Source: Alberta Energy Regulator

alberta O&G land auction

b.c. O&G land auction

brent crude price

December 2013 to November 2014


May 2010-December 2014December 2013 to December 2014


William JulianrEGiONAL MANAGEr

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Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) is seeking government approval to build the North Montney Mainline pipeline, which would initially run from an area about 100 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John, travelling about 300 km to the Groundbirch area, where it would connect to other natu-ral gas pipelines.

The National Energy Board held about a week of hearings last month in Fort St. John, during which more than 45 people spoke about the proj-ect. Their testimony will be weighed by three people – Shane Parrish, Bob Vergette and Jamie Ballem – who will then make a decision for the NEB whether or not to rec-ommend that the project go ahead, and if it does, under what conditions.

The proposed 301-kilometre pipeline would pass through the Fort St. John area.

NOVA Gas Transmission (NGTL) wants to build the North Montney Mainline, which if fully built, will run from about 180 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John to Groundbirch, where it will join up with the existing pipeline network, as well as potential future pipelines intended to eventually carry the gas to ex-port facilities in Prince Rupert.

A 2013 estimate gave the project a $1.7 billion price tag. But the project requires ap-proval from the National En-ergy Board to go further.

Whitney Punchak, an NEB spokesperson, said that the part of the process they were currently going through was cross-examination of evidence that has already been placed

on the record.Naomi Owens, the Treaty

and Lands Director for Saul-teau First Nations, raised concerns.

NGTL representatives made an opening statement that one of two options provided for the pipeline routes already re-sponds to Saulteau’s concerns “regarding the (Peace Moberly Tract), while also minimizing the length and overall foot-print of the project (includ-

ing footprint within caribou range) and meeting the re-quirements of the project.”

“With the mitigation mea-sures that have been pro-posed, NGTL believes the pro-posed route for the project is the most appropriate alterna-tive,” the company said.

In their opening statement, NGTL said that they were “not able to relocate the com-pressor station ... a compres-sor station is required in this

William StodalkaStaff Writer

$1.7B pipeline closer to realityA panel member said that the NEB decision on Montney Mainline

could be expected to April 21, 2015. Testimony from Blaine Trout, the project’s manager, pointed to a possible August start date,


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DAVE DyCk PHOTOS

location to meet the needs of the project.”

A panel member said that the panel’s decision could be ex-pected by April 21, 2015.

Testimony from Blaine Trout, the project’s manager, pointed to a possible August start date, pending regulatory approval.

[email protected]

$1.7B pipeline closer to realitypending regulatory approval. The National

Energy Board held about a week of hearings on the 301 km pipeline last month in Fort St. John.

“ngtl believes the proposed route for the project is the most appropriate alternative.”


alberta briefs

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made a splash in Calgary in early December, de-livering the only major speech he’ll give in Canada as part of a brief Alberta tour.

While spending much of his time address-ing broad Canada-United States trade is-sues, calling for the removal of trade bar-riers and more efficient traffic across the border, he followed his host, Alberta Pre-mier Jim Prentice’s lead in touting the pro-posed keystone XL pipeline project, which has been hung up in the U.S. approval process.

“We are missing an enormous op-portunity when we delay this develop-ment,” the aspiring Republican U.S. presidential candidate told oil and gas ex-ecutives at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

“It sends a very unfortunate signal,” re-ducing investors’ willingness to make sig-nificant investments on a large scale, and preventing rising production from Can-ada’s oilsands from getting to market, he said. “[Delay] stumps production and it risks stumping growth as well,” he told the audience.

yet, aside from its adverse effects, delay-ing keystone XL is “no way to treat a friend,” Christie said, elaborating on the impor-tance of the Canada-U.S. relationship for both countries.

“This is not about sending your oil across our land, [but] about maximizing the ben-efit of North America’s natural resources for everybody. It’s about allowing mar-kets to function, contributing to the pros-perity of citizens, both in the U.S. and in Canada.”

Already, some four dozen natural gas and crude oil pipelines cross the Canada-U.S. border, and in its own study, the U.S. State Department concluded these lines are safe and that keystone XL would also be safe, he said.

According to Christie, the State Depart-ment estimated roughly 42,000 U.S. jobs would be supported by construction of the project, many in construction, but others in support functions. “you heard it from the State Department.” — Daily Oil Bulletin

New Jersey’s Christie touts Keystone XL

MEG Energy Corp. says it will spend $1.2 billion on its capital program next year, the same as this year’s revised capital budget, while boosting pro-duction by 19 per cent.

The program includes $235 million in sustain-ing and maintenance capital directed towards maintaining current production levels and $965 million of growth capital that would support the company’s medium-term growth of 10 per cent to 15 per cent per year.

MEG is targeting 2015 average output of 78,000 to 82,000 bbls per day, about 19 per cent higher than the company’s upwardly revised 2014 pro-duction guidance of 65,000 to 70,000 bbls per day. The initial forecast was for 60,000 to 65,000 bbls per day.

Capital expenditures in 2014 will be $1.2 billion, 31 per cent less than the $1.8 billion the compa-ny’s initial budget of $1.8 billion which included $200 million in discretionary spending.

MEG reduced spending 2014 expectations be-cause of cost savings from changing its emphasis from major greenfield projects to incremental brownfield expansions of existing facilities, as well as a shift in timing associated with longer-term projects, said MEG in a news release.

“What we’ve looked at is a more flexible and we think better, more capital-efficient approach, Brad Bellows, spokesperson, told the Daily Oil Bulletin.

The Christina Lake Regional Project is the focus of MEG’s oilsands development. Phase 2B began operations in late 2013.

Phase 3, approved by regulators in early 2012, proposes to add an additional 150,000 bbls per day of production capacity.

“Rather than doing a step-out project with a brand-new greenfield [project], what would have been our Phase 3, we’ve found better econom-ics in building up our current phases, 2 and 2B, by adding additional steam capacity and putting in some of the facilities that might otherwise be, in a brand-new project, into our existing proj-ects and increasing production that way,” said Bellows.

Phase 3 is still very much in the plans but the current focus is in the economic returns MEG sees from building out the current phases through brownfield development, he said.

The company hasn’t set a firm timeline on Phase 3, said Bellows.

— Daily Oil Bulletin

MEG Sets 2015 Capital Budget Of $1.2 Billion

MCT PHOTO

Despite the lack of final investment decisions on large projects such as major LNG projects, Black Diamond Group Limited said it expects its geographical and product line diversification to result in ongoing, modest EBITDA growth in 2015.

The company said its outlook remains consis-tent with previously disclosed information in the company’s second quarter 2014 financial results with its forward-contracted revenue reaching $174 million at the end of the quarter.

Within its large camps segment, Black Dia-mond’s previously announced 1,244 bed project in the Montney region of British Columbia re-mains on track, with the first phase anticipated to be complete by Jan. 1, 2015 and the second phase complete by April 2015. Overall pricing in Black Diamond’s large camps segment remains stable due to the terms of the assets under contract.

The company’s North American BOXX modular platform also continues to see healthy levels of demand and pricing stability, driven by ongoing construction and infrastructure development in core markets.

Black Diamond’s oilsands accommodations assets are diversified across a number of custom-ers and differing projects, with no single project accounting for more than 1,300 beds and its cus-tomers remain active in the areas it serves.

The company’s overall smaller project size com-pared to those often seen in large scale oilsands mining projects allows a managed approach to redeploying assets should projects reach comple-tion, it said. While management does not expect significant new project activity in the oilsands over the next several quarters, current contracted assets on-site will continue to deliver revenue and returns similar to historical levels.

Black Diamond’s 2014 capital program has been weighted towards the second half, causing incremental cash flow to have a greater effect in 2015. It said it continues to see relative stability across its platform and anticipates second half 2014 EBITDA levels similar to those seen in 2013.. In spite of market-wide concerns around project decisions and delays, and risks around commod-ity prices, management said it believes that the company is well-positioned to effectively capital-ize on and manage through periods of softer mar-ket demand, evidenced by the company’s strong balance sheet, stable, diversified, recurring cash flow and performance through previous cycles.


Black Diamond provides operational update

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“What they’re doing now is going back to see if they can dicker everybody down a little bit."

—Senator Richard Neufeld

In December, Malaysian-owned energy giant Petronas announced they were putting final plans for an LNG export terminal on B.C.’s coast on hold until at least Spring 2015.

Although their decision on whether to invest in the estimated $36 billion project was expected to come down before the New year, North Peace MLA Pat Pimm and other officials caution skeptics not to bet against B.C.’s nascent LNG industry.

“At this point I’m not disappoint-ed,” Pimm said. “As far as I’m con-cerned, we’re right on track. They’ve made it clear that they have to dot a couple more ‘i’s and cross a couple more ‘t’s and that’s just good busi-

ness sense.”He said the province has done

all it can to woo the companies, all that’s left is to have them sign their final investment decisions, which is “out of our hands.”

The company has been collecting bids for the engineering and design of the facility over the past year and a half, and so far those have come in at too high a price, they said in a release issued in December.

“Costs associated with the pipe-line and LNG facility remain chal-lenging and must be reduced fur-ther,” read the statement from Petronas.

Richard Neufeld, a member of the Canadian Senate and chair of the Energy, Environment and Nat-ural Resources committee, agreed with Pimm that this was not a setback.

“It’s not like building a condo in Fort St. John, it’s billions of dollars,” he said. “I guess what they’re do-ing now is they’re going back to see if they can dicker everybody down a little bit, which is kind of the way the word works.”

Neufeld also pointed to the fact that Petronas has already spent a great deal of money on the proj-ect to date, as well as the number of other projects from other LNG proponents that are being seriously considered, as reasons for mea-sured optimism.

“I can understand why some would be nervous, they’ve got a lot on the line, but I think a little pa-tience here to let these guys figure out just how they want to spend their 30 some billion dollars is fair enough, it’s their money.”

As for possible reasons why

“When I hear financial analysts and some, what I would call ‘reasonably astute’ consultants yapping and chatting that the oil price is not right for LNG exports, well maybe that’s for a current project that’s operating in Yemen or North Africa or Australia, but has nothing to do with the Canadian projects on the West Coast.”

David DyckStaff Writer

“At this point I’m not disappointed. As far as I’m concerned, we’re right on track.”

—MLA Pat Pimm


upbeat on lng in b.c., alberta

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lngtwitter.com/pipelinenn#LNGinBC

they’ve delayed, he guessed that the recent drop in the price of oil might have given the company reason to pause and consider where it lies.

“I can’t imagine that they’re not looking at those numbers too,” he said.

Oil is often used as a benchmark to deter-mine LNG import prices in Asia. Lower oil pric-es means lower LNG prices, which makes the economics of exporting natural gas more chal-lenging for proponents in places in British Co-lumbia, the United States, Australia and others.

But Bill Gwozd, Senior Vice President of Ziff Energy, said the short-term price of oil would not have affected Petronas’ decision to delay.

Analysts like Gwozd say it’s the long-term price of oil that’s important, not a temporary drop.

“When I hear financial analysts and some, what I would call ‘reasonably astute’ consul-tants yapping and chatting that the oil price is not right for LNG exports, well maybe that’s for a current project that’s operating in yemen or North Africa or Australia, but has nothing to do with the Canadian projects on the West Coast,” he said.

Rather, they would be concerned with those prices from when the projects are scheduled for completion and for the following decades.

“They may have an interest in what is hap-pening in 2018, as a starting point, maybe 2019, but they’re really concerned about the oil price in the year 2020 to the year 2050, because that’s the time when they’re actually going to sell the gas.”

Gwozd added that not only do today’s oil

prices have little to no effect on the decision, when that price actually becomes relevant, they would be looking particularly to the price in the Asian market, since that is where they would be selling LNG.

So why the delay? Like Pimm, Neufeld, and Petronas, Gwozd

said he suspects that they’re simply looking to make a deal and cut costs.

“Maybe the B.C. government can do some-thing, maybe a producer or service guy can do something, maybe something can be done to drive the guy’s cost down, which is a huge captured value, just for a phone call, just for a one-day press release, just for a one-day statement.”

[email protected]

“They’re really concerned about the oil price in the year 2020 to 2050.”

—Analyst Bill Gwozd


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Alberta’s premier discusses his views on the importance of access to tidewater, the drop in oil prices and its impact on the province’s finances as well as his thoughts on a National Energy Strategy. In Part 1 in December, he discussed environmental protection and the oilsands.

Gaining access to tidewater on the east and west coasts is criti-cal for Alberta’s oil and natural

gas resources — particularly for growing oilsands output — be-cause it would allow the province to tap higher world prices, and thus lessen the amount of money left on the table from wide differ-entials, says Premier Jim Prentice.

This is important because non-renewable resources generate significant revenue for the Al-berta government. At the time the provincial budget was tabled

in February, the government’s operational plan forecast total non-renewable resource revenue of $9.21 billion for 2014/2015 — that includes bitumen, crude oil, natural gas royalties and Crown land sales. Total provincial opera-tional plan revenue was forecast at $44.35 billion.

Alberta has been punished by differentials in recent years, which Prentice tied to the lack of

access to tidewater, and he laid out some sobering numbers: last year, lost revenue to industry was around $12.85 billion. The loss to the Alberta government in royal-ties was about $2.85 billion, the loss to the federal government in terms of income tax was another $2 billion and $1 billion in lost Al-berta income tax.

“Hence, it’s [important],” he said in a recent editorial meeting

Access to tidewater critical For Alberta’s oil: Alberta Premier Jim Prentice


alberta [email protected]

R001642872

Access to tidewater critical For Alberta’s oil: Alberta Premier Jim Prenticewith the Daily Oil Bulletin and sister publication Oilsands Re-view. “Government can be a very constructive part of this. I think there are things that we can do as Albertans, working together with the New Brunswick government [with regard to Energy East] … and be a collaborative partner on everything from labour to some other job skills training.

“I think the first role of the

provincial government is to work together with the national gov-ernment and other provincial governments to make sure that there’s support.”

Prentice sees these types of pipeline projects — particularly Energy East — as nation building projects.

“It helps the country and it helps Alberta in the sense that industrial benefits flowing from

the oilsands are accruing not just to Alberta but to Quebec and to New Brunswick; the port facili-ties that are under discussion are multibillion-dollar port facilities that will create jobs and invest-ment in two other provinces,” he said.

“In all these projects, you’re talking about multibillion-dollar port facilities that become eco-nomic drivers in the province

that is located at tidewater.“The obligation of the provin-

cial government is to work to-gether with the proponents, try to ensure that the national gov-ernment and other provincial governments are supportive and we’re required to actually step in and help assist with discussions with First Nations,” Prentice added.

See ALBERTA on Page 18


fOrt st. JOhn

The Fort St. John Petroleum Association held

their elections on Dec. 5, that included – for the first time ever – invitations extended to the oil-men’s “better halves.”

The evening at the Lido Theatre provid-ed members and their guests with food and entertainment in the form of Dueling Pianos.

“Usually in the December meeting we get a pretty poor turnout for elections, so we thought we would spruce it up a little bit, bring the spous-es out,” said President Sean Thomas.

He said that with their New year’s party being cancelled a few years ago due to a lack of inter-est, the board thought that they’d go in a different direction this year.

“We thought we’d do this and have kind of like a Christmas party, something different,” he said.

“It was an awesome idea that they came up with to involve the spouses,” said Gord Westergaard, who has been a member for 10 years, and took a position as a director that evening.

“The Oilmen’s Association is basically a so-cial club, good fellowship, and they made an event to bring the wives and turn it into kind of a Christmas party. I thought it was a good idea.”

But the fun didn’t start until business was con-cluded, and although they cut most of the busi-ness they conduct during their monthly meet-ings short, half of the executives’ terms were up.

That meant elections, or, in last night’s case, acclamations.

Oilmen celebrate with their spouses

Sean Thomas retained his position as president of the Oilman’s Association. DAVID DYCK PhOTO

David Dyck Staff Writer

The organization’s executives cycle through on two-year terms, with elections held each year to provide some overlap. This year the position of president, treasurer and four directors were up for grabs.

The board won’t look all that different coming into 2015, however, as all men let their names stand and were unchallenged for another term with the exception of two directors, Lorne Little and Shayne Tulloch.

They made way for two new ones, Gord Wester-gaard and Clayton Lingal, both of whom were ac-claimed to the positions.

“I’m always excited to get new guys on there,” said Thomas. “It just brings a different perspec-tive, a different thought process, someone differ-ent to bounce ideas off of.”

While Thomas said a turnout of nearly 50 mem-bers was good for a December meeting, Wester-gaard said that he’d like to see that number in-crease. “It’s a little disappointing, considering that we have 600 members in FSJ,” he said. He said he planned on working on that issue during his term.

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ALBERTA from Page 15

National Energy Strategy Alison Redford, the former premier, had been supportive of a Na-

tional Energy Strategy. When asked if he’d keep pushing it onto the national agenda, Prentice said he’d “withhold judgment on that until I meet the other premiers in a common setting.

“I understand the wisdom of having a national policy; I think it’s difficult to arrive at,” he said. “From my perspective, the imperative is market access. The imperative for Alberta, for Saskatchewan and British Columbia as well — they’re both energy producers — the im-perative is accessing global markets because if you don’t access global markets, you’re not going to get global prices.

“I don’t need a national policy to know that. That’s the fundamental market reality of the business that we’re in, and so we need access to tidewater,” Prentice stressed. “To the extent that there’s other policy

issues that we can collaborate on, I’m supportive. But, the critical thing is market access.”

Oil price dropThe government, meanwhile, continues to monitor oil prices, which

have fallen to under $60 West Texas Intermediate (WTI) while Brent is just over $65.

“There are things that we cannot control, and that starts with the international price of oil and so we’re a price taker not a price maker when it comes to that,” Prentice said. “The two things we can control … in the shorter-term, it relates to our control over government ex-penditures in making sure we’re prudent and disciplined and focused on what the implications are.

“Alberta has been insulated by four factors,” Prentice said. First, the Canadian dollar has declined, differentials have been tighter in response to increasing takeaway capacity, condensate prices have been lower, which helps on diluted barrels, plus there’s been volume increases. —Daily Oil bulletin

“The imperative is market access. The imperative for Alberta, for Saskatchewan and British Columbia as well — they’re both energy producers — is accessing global markets.”

Premier on oil strategy, prices


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Down to the wire at the Oilmen’s Bonspiel

If curling fun were a natural re-source, the Fort St. John Curling Club would’ve hit the motherlode in November.

That’s because the Fort St. John Petroleum Association held its annual bonspiel from Nov. 12 to Nov. 15.

This year, about 32 teams of four registered to participate in the event, which included a wide range of Peace Region service companies.

The curlers slowly cleared the ice as the finals of the 54th annual Fort St. John Oilmen’s Bonspiel wound down, two of the top teams over the weekend went down to the final rock to determine a champion.

CVS Controls and Vertical Build-ing Solutions aka Camo and kilts battled back and forth in the final

at the Fort St. John Curling Club and it was CVS who came up short on a draw to the button allowing Vertical to score four and snag a 8-6 win.

Skip of the Vertical Building So-lutions rink kevin Hrab said after trailing against such a strong team it was nice to pull out a win.

“It was a good, they were a good team — they threw extremely good rocks and they had us on the ropes the whole way so it was nice to come back like that,” he said.

Trailing for most the match after CVS scored three in the first end, the first real opening for Vertical to take the lead didn’t come until the eighth end when the second last CVS yellow stone slide through the house.

Before that Rock Hrab and his rink were looking to score two for a tie and push the game to an extra end but with the opening, the pos-sibility to get three or more for the

win opened up. Hrab said it was just a stroke of good fortune.

“It just all worked out,” he said.“The curling gods were in our favour.”

Hrab also said after the match it was experience that played the biggest role in the win.

“It’s experience,” he noted. “Troy [Hebert] and I and Burke

[Forester] have all played this game for a long time. It’s just calm-ing your nerves and just making sure you are focusing— it’s one end at a time.

“Even in the first end they scored three on us and I said ‘guys let’s just get our deuce back. We’re not out of it, there’s lot’s of curling left.’

“We’ve been up like that before and given up games. It’s nice when you can do it back.”

The Vertical team was made up of Hebert, Forrester, Rob Ferman and Michael Firkes.

That experience includes Hrab playing the last 10 Oilmen’s bonspiels.

With that has come plenty of final appearances at the bonspiel for Hrab but never an A final win and over the years he continues to make it out to the event largely due to the social connections that has developed over the years.

“In terms of numbers its prob-ably the largest bonspiel that Fort St. John hosts every year,” he said.

“It’s nice because there is a lot of camaraderie around the oil patch and getting the people in-volved. A lot of people we are working with and for come out here— it’s kind of a setting where we can enjoy the camaraderie of it— it’s a great event that way. The organizers always do a really good job. And we’ve got hats off to them.”

In the B event, Fraction Ener-

Byron HackettStaff Writer

Byron hackett photoKevin Hrab and Burke Forester sweep a rock into place during the A final of the 54th an-nual Fort St. John Oil-men's Bonspiel.

Oilmen’s bOnspiel


Oilmen’s [email protected]

gy Services beat out DRS to take home the title.

The C final was won by Stimula-tors over D&D Insulators.

The D final was won by PCR #1 over the Troyer rink.

In the E final, Pimm’s Produc-tion Equipment was victorious over Apex Distribution.

The group this year included 32 teams and more than 130 curlers from various companies around the oil industry.

Despite the turnout being lower than previous years due to what Oilmen’s committee member Don Gunther called “a busy area” the event was a successful one and has continued over the years simply due to the dedication of the local Oilmen’s community.

“There’s just a lot of dedi-cation to this event,” he said. “It’s local support and local dedication.”

Ross Sexsmith, the treasurer of

the Petroleum Association for the past 10 years, said that the event was now in its 54th year. This is only one year older than the Asso-ciation itself, which was founded in 1959.

“It’s just an opportunity for members of the Petroleum Asso-ciation to network with those that they work with and just kind of blow off some steam, have some fun,” he said.

“It’s just an opportunity for oil-men who may not see one another to connect, re-connect, network with customers and clients.”

Sexsmith has some fond memo-ries of previous bonspiels, includ-ing some extra effort they put into their 50th annual a few years back: “We had kevin Martin and a gold medal-winning curling team as speakers.

“That would be the highlights.” [email protected]

Byron hackett photoSix teams from a va-riety of oilfield com-panies participated in the 54th annual Fort St. John Petroleum Association Oilmen’s Bonspiel at the Fort St. John Curling Club on the first day of the bonspeil.


fb.com/pipelinenewsnorthlOcal bUsiness

ABC Recycling has acquired lo-cal Fort St. John company North-east Steel, ABC announced late last month.

The metal recycling company is based out of Burnaby, B.C., and has been expanding heavily since 2005. They currently have locations in Ter-race, Campbell River, Surrey, Prince George, kelowna, Grande Prairie, Nanaimo, and now Fort St. John.

The company deals with approxi-mately 20,000 tonnes of steel and 2,500 tonnes of non-ferrous metals per month between all its locations, shipping primarily using rail. Much of their steel goes to Evraz Steel Mill in Regina, and the non-ferrous met-als such as aluminum and copper is shipped overseas.

The two companies have been working together for a long time, said ABC owner David yochlowitz.

“We’ve been dealing with Lorne

[Shallock, owner of Northeast Steel] for many years, he does a lot of col-lection of materials through Fort St. John,” said yochlowitz. “He’s been there for many years, [and has made] good relationships.”

“It’s time for me to retire, and Da-vid [yochlowitz] and the boys ap-proached me,” said Shallock, who added that he doesn’t plans on leav-ing the region. He moved here with his wife in 1979, and bought out In-land Iron 18 years ago to start North-east Steel.

The dollar amount of the deal was not disclosed to Alaska Highway News, but both parties said it was a mutually agreed upon price, and that they were happy with the out-come.

They added that clients should not expect a change in service. “Custom-ers are going to get exactly what they had,” said Shallock.

[email protected]

A version of this article ap-peared in print in The Alaska Highway News.

ABC acquires Northeast Steel

“We’ve been dealing with Lorne [Shallock, owner of Northeast Steel] for many years, he does a lot of collection of materials through Fort St. John. He’s been there for many years, [and has made] good relationships.”

DAVID DYCKStaff Writer

Lorne Shallock (left) with ABC Recycling CEO David Yochlowitz. Shallock sold Northeast Steel to ABC Recycling, a company out of the Lower Mainland, last month. DAVID DYCK PhOTO


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The Nisga’a First Nation has signed an agreement with the province that guarantees they will benefit should any LNG projects move forward on their land on B.C.’s northwest coast.

Right now, the Prince Rupert Transmission Pipeline (PRGT) is planned to cut across 97 kilometres of Nisga’a land in the Nass River area.

All told, the Nisga’a First Nation will receive at least $6 million, bro-ken down over several stages. They will receive $1 million for signing the agreement, $2.5 million when the pipeline construction starts and $2.5 million when it becomes operational.

But that’s not all. The Nisga’a and its approximately 7,000 citi-zens will also get a cut of the $10 million per year set aside to com-pensate First Nations along that particular 900-kilometre pipeline. Exactly how much of that money will go to the Nisga’a First Nation

directly has yet to be determined.“The agreement further estab-

lishes the Nisga’a as active part-ners in B.C.’s LNG industry and serves notice to investors that we are interested in collaborative op-portunities that are based on posi-tive relationships,” said Nisga’a President Mitchell Stevens, who added that elders, chiefs and elect-ed representatives all voted in fa-vour of the agreement.

While the Nisga’a have now voiced their support for the proj-ect, the final decision on whether to proceed rests with the pipeline builder, Petronas.

“Today’s agreement provides the Nisga’a Nation with a powerful tool to seize the economic opportunity and helps to give the LNG industry the certainty needed to make final investment decisions,” said Rich Coleman, B.C.’s deputy premier and Minister of Natural Gas Devel-opment. “This is a major step to-wards realizing the economic ben-efits that will flow to First Nations and all British Columbians from a new LNG export industry.”

[email protected]

David Dyck Staff Writer

Nisga’a Nation signs LNG agreement with B.C.


lngbuybcThe tool, available at LNGBuyBC.ca, is allowing industry players

and contractors in various sub-industries to advertise their skills and opportunities to each other.

In yet another step towards preparing for liq-uefied natural gas (LNG) development, in De-cember the provincial government launched a new online tool to assist B.C. businesses in con-necting with the industry.

The tool, available at LNGBuyBC.ca, will allow industry players and contractors in various sub-industries to advertise their skills and opportu-nities to each other.

“We are building a new industry with the potential to support economic development in our province for more than 150 years,” said Deputy Premier Rich Coleman in a press release.

Interested companies can sign up and create a profile that outlines their specialties, certifica-tions and contact information available to other

businesses on the network. About 300 compa-nies signed up during a pre-registry period prior to Nov. 18. Some of those contractors include ca-terers, construction, finance and insurance, with 25 of them Aboriginal-owned.

One such company was Silvertip Promotions and Signs, a small business based in Terrace that specializes in promotional and advertising ser-vices.

Owner Gord Shaben said it would help them with “doing business in a bigger way by learn-ing what you need to do to be prepared and to the possibility of partnerships,” he said in the release.

It has been estimated that B.C. contains 2,933 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and several LNG proponents are planning export-processing fa-cilities in British Columbia. Once they arrive at a final investment decision, assuming the projects go forward, the need for resources and

manpower is projected to accelerate rapidly.The tool is meant to expand beyond that one

sector of the economy, which is expecting a large amount of growth, to serve companies in other areas in the future.

Peace River North MLA Pat Pimm recently said B.C. is expecting upwards of a million jobs to become available in the province over the next several years. [email protected]

lOcal bUsiness

A screen grab of the provincial government’s LNG-Buy BC program, which was rolled out last month.

David Dyck Staff Writer “We are building a new

industry with the potential to support economic development in our province for more than 150 years.”


R001697732

[email protected] peace

The mayor of Dawson Creek has been vocal that he believes the $8,000 put towards entertaining and lodging oil and gas executives in November will pay off many times over for the city down the road.

Mayor Dale Bumstead held a meeting at a Dawson Creek ho-tel in November with industry executives and local business owners. The agenda included discussions about worker short-ages, infrastructure and a num-ber of issues related to oil and gas development.

Later, some of the delegates

attended the John Fogerty con-cert in Dawson Creek, also cour-tesy the city.

In a social media post, Bum-stead acknowledged that some people might think it “inappro-priate to spend tax money” on a concert for business executives, but said he believed it was worth the investment.

“For me, the relationships and the contacts we have with people who are making big investment decisions in our community are the reason we need to be show-casing our community as having a great quality of life,” he later told the Alaska Highway News.

“It’s also an opportunity for our

businesspeople to interact with [executives] and establish a more personal relationship and con-tacts in the future.”

Among those invited to the meeting were vice presidents from Encana, TransCanada, Pembina, AltaGas and Tervita, as well as between 15 and 20 lo-cal business owners, Bumstead said.

The mayor also mentioned that the presidents of Ferus, Hawkair and the Petroleum Ser-vices Association of Canada were attending.

In all, lodgings and entertain-ment would run around $8,000, Bumstead said.

Of that, around $2,500 will come from the city’s economic development budget, while the rest would come from a regional district grant, he added.

An earlier council delegated the powers of economic development officer – which is a separate staff position in many other B.C. mu-nicipalities – to Bumstead.

Among other duties, this makes promotion of the city one of the mayor’s key responsibilities.

[email protected]

A version of this article appeared in print in The Alaska Highway News. —Ed.

Jonny WakefieldStaff Writer

“The relationships and the contacts we have with people who are making big investment decisions in our community are the reason we need to be showcasing our community”

Oil & gas execs get red carpet treatment

PIPELINE from Page 29

Mr. Couillard and Ms. Wynne held a joint press conference last month highlighting seven “principles” — conditions that need to be met to get their approval — including the impact of the pipeline on green-house gas emissions.

Mr. Prentice said Mr. Couillard made clear in their meeting that Quebec is merely asking the Nation-al Energy Board to look at green-house gas emissions produced by the pipeline in the province, rather than an environmental review of emissions in the entire oilpatch.

Mr. Prentice has tried to pacify climate change concerns by talking about the need to mitigate green-house gas emissions as part of his province’s environmental protec-tion plan, due to be made public at the end of the month. The Alberta premier said his government is re-viewing the $15 a tonne carbon levy — speculation is that it could dou-ble to $30 a tonne.

There are other concerns that, for all Mr. Prentice’s honeyed words, re-main major barriers to the success-ful completion of Energy East.

Work stopped in December on the construction of an oil terminal at Cacouna on the St. Lawrence Estu-ary in Quebec, after a federal report said that increased shipping traffic would disturb the natural habitat of the river’s beluga whale population, which is already in rapid decline

and considered an endangered spe-cies. TransCanada is said to be look-ing at alternative sites for a terminal on the St. Lawrence.

Then there are the worries in both provinces that converting an existing natural gas pipeline to carry crude will cut the capacity for gas available during peak winter demand.

Sophie Brochu, chief execu-tive of Gaz Métro, has gone public with her concern that large indus-trial projects in Quebec are threat-ened because of their dependence on natural gas. TransCanada, the pipeline’s owner, has said it will build a new pipeline to serve east-ern Ontario and Quebec with gas, but Gaz Métro and other do-mestic suppliers are concerned that this will not allow for future growth.

These are very real problems. But they are not insurmountable. And they do not compare to building a railway through kicking Horse Pass.

Canada has devolved into a patchwork of antithetical, and often antagonistic, provincial interests. Energy East provides many of those provinces with common purpose.

As Sir John A. pointed out, the greatness of this country is that it is more than the sum of its parts. “We shall sink into insignificance and adversity if we suffer it to be broken,” he said. As is so often the case, the Old Chieftain’s words have weathered the test of time.


sOUth peace

The president of the airline taking over service from the Dawson Creek Regional Airport believes passenger traffic could quintuple without major infrastructure upgrades.

While on a tour of the aircraft main-tenance hangar at Northern Lights College, Hawkair president Jay Dilley told said Dawson Creek’s airport could move “between five and seven thou-sand people” a month – up from the one to 2,000 monthly passengers the airport currently handles.

On Dec. 1, Hawkair took over full service to and from the Dawson Creek airport from Central Mountain Air. (Hawkair already operated the route on behalf of CMA.)

Since Hawkair announced they would take over for CMA last month, the airline has floated the idea of adding a second daily Van-couver flight, with possible new routes to and from Calgary and Ed-monton if there’s demand, Dilley said.

“We can move an absolute ton of

people through this airport without any real big changes to the runway,” said Dilley. “There can be changes or modifications to the boarding lounge, that kind of thing, but we’re not talking about earth shattering, big things.”

That runs counter to the “if you build it, they will come” attitude many cities have about their airports, he said.

“We’re bad as an industry at getting people to make investments, and once the infrastructure and investment are there, we may not utilize it,” he said. “I would not want a community to go out and make a huge investment and then find out that, well, no, we’re not going to use it.”

At a roundtable with elected officials and industry executives in December, Terrace, B.C. was held up as an exam-ple of an airport where a runway ex-pansion was not one hundred per cent necessary.

In 2005, Terrace extended the aging runway at the Northwest Regional Air-port by 1,500 feet in hopes of attract-ing new carriers and larger planes.

That airport’s longest runway is 7,500 feet, compared to Dawson Creek’s 5,000 foot tarmac.

Carman Hendry, the airport

manager in Terrace, said the larger jets have yet to materialize, but that overall traffic to the airport has increased.

The original goal was to “entice more airliners to be able to fly into the airport to service the community,” Hendry said, adding “we haven’t seen larger jets, but we have seen more air-craft coming in.”

The airport now has five carriers (Hawkair is based out of Terrace), and averages 21,000 passengers a month.

He believed the airport is well posi-tioned, should oil and gas companies decide to invest in upstream liquefied natural gas projects in the area.

Terry McFadyen, the councillor who has been Dawson Creek’s point person on airport issues, said he would likely sit down with Hawkair in the new year to see what upgrades would be worth considering.

Improved aprons and a hangar are possible upgrades, he said.

“We’ll be sitting down [with Hawkair] and asking what they need and what they can offer,” McFadyen said. “[Dil-ley] says he has equipment and crews to put on more flights, it’s just a ques-tion of where to.”

[email protected]

Dawson Creek Airport traffic ‘could quintuple’

Hawkair presidentbelieves the airport is well positioned, should oil and gas companies decide to invest in upstream liquefied natural gas projects in the area.

Jonny WakefieldStaff Writer

hawkair president Jay Dilley on a tour of the Northern Lights College aircraft hanger with professor hal hobenshield. Dilley said traffic through the Dawson Creek airport could as much as quintuple without major infrastructure upgrades. JONNY WAKEFIELD PhOTO


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LNG from Page 5

“That alone is a good economic benefit,” he said.“We’re looking at an industry that has the po-

tential of impacting Canada to the tune of $455 billion over 20 years. It’s absolutely massive as an industry.”

Richard Neufeld, former Peace River North MLA and now chair of the Energy, The Environment and Natural Resources Committee in the Cana-dian Senate, said there’s a definite international demand that B.C. is poised to supply.

“I’m a great believer in it – I think it’s going to happen,” he said. “There’s such a thirst out there for LNG, for replacing coal-fired power, and even just getting power generation to many places that don’t have any, or replacing a lot of the nuclear.”

Neufeld said that once the first investment de-cision comes down, he believes the industry will start to pick up speed. “It’ll give everybody some momentum,” he said.

“This LNG, for us in British Columbia, could be as big as the oil sands are in Alberta.”

Mike Bernier, Peace River South MLA, said the stakes were high for all of northeastern B.C.

“The spin-off means not only employment, but when you look at the investment opportunities in the area that are happening around businesses and hotels, all of those things are going to slow down, if not cease, if we don’t have LNG,” he said.

Bernier’s counterpart, current Peace River North MLA Pat Pimm, agreed that the industry was in-credibly important, stressing that patience would pay off, as the process is moving.

“There are a lot of folks in my region that have been saying, ‘We’re going way too slow, these projects are not going ahead,’ that sort of thing,” he said. “This shows that the projects are moving ahead, we’re getting the hurdles out of the way and we’re making it so these companies can make their

final investment decisions and get moving forward with these projects.”

With regard to the conditions placed on the projects, Pimm added that he saw flexibility from industry.

“The route [of the pipeline] was changed to ac-commodate the consultations,” he said, pointing to concerns surrounding wildlife.

Pimm also said he’d like to see First Nations get more involved on his level of government, rather than dealing primarily with ministers.

“Sometimes, I find that’s a little frustrating, be-cause I’d like to help out in some of these situa-tions, and more often than not they don’t give me the opportunity to help out,” he said.

The LNG tax plan that was announced in November was passed into law in the B.C. Legislature.

“Now we’re just waiting for the final investment decisions, and that’ll basically be a green light for activity to ramp up in our region,” said Pimm. “Petronas is certainly the one that’s in the leading position at this point in time, so hopefully we see something from them in the very near future.”

Petronas’ project is the Pacific NorthWest LNG export facility, which would be located on Lelu Is-land and the Port of Prince Rupert. The $11 billion facility is expected to create 650 full-time jobs, the B.C. government said in a release.

Meanwhile, the Westcoast Connector Gas Trans-mission pipeline involves building a $7.5 billion, 860-kilometre pipeline running from Cypress to a proposed LNG terminal near Prince Rupert, with the potential to build an identical twin down the road.

Finally, the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline would run from Hudson’s Hope to the Pa-cific NorthWest LNG facility. It’s expected to cost $5 billion, providing 23 full-time jobs over 40 years.

These three are just a fraction of the well more than a dozen projects that are proposed in B.C., as the province joins the race to export cheap LNG to foreign markets.

[email protected]

A version of this article appeared in print in The Alaska Highway News. —Ed.

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Jim Prentice makes case for Energy East

“We are all mere petty provincial politicians at present; perhaps, by and by, some of us will rise to the level of national statesmen,” said Sir John A. Macdonald, on the eve of Confedera-tion.

In the absence of the intervention of the cur-rent Prime Minister in the debate over the En-ergy East pipeline, Alberta Premier Jim Prentice is making the case for Canada.

“It is very much a nation-building project,” he said in an interview. “In Alberta, we produce 2.85 million barrels of oil a day. Next year, it will be three million barrels a day. The oil is, inexo-rably, making its way to ports and we need to figure out how to maximize the economic ad-vantage for Canada.”

Mr. Prentice met with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, and heads to Toronto to meet Ontario Premier kathleen Wynne, as part of his campaign to convince central Canadians that the project to ship Western crude to the east coast will benefit the whole country. He pointed out the lack of access to world prices costs Canada more than $10-billion a year.

As part of his mission, the Alberta Premier visited Vancouver in early December, where he said Canada is an economic union, as well as a political union, based on the assumption that provinces should share the advantages of growth and development. “This has always been vital to our sense of common Canadian nationhood. Despite our divergent interests, we are all on the same team,” he said.

Mr. Prentice’s approach applies oil to rela-tions with Quebec and Ontario, both of which have expressed concerns about the Energy East project.

The Alberta Premier’s delivery is in stark con-trast to the liberal amounts of vinegar splashed about by Brad Wall, the Saskatchewan Premier. He pointed out that, while Central Canada has complained about Energy East, it has been less perturbed by “Equalization East,” the transfer program of money from west to east.

The softly-softly approach taken by Mr. Pren-tice appears to be bearing fruit. After his meet-ing with the Quebec Premier, he said Mr. Couil-lard is a “devoted, passionate federalist, who wants a strong working relationship” with Al-berta.

“Alberta is the largest producer of oil in the world that is landlocked. To take advantage of global markets, we need partners,” he said.

Appealing to the patriotic angels of other

premiers is a smart approach but Mr. Prentice knows that will only get him so far in winning acceptance in Quebec.

In his conversation with Mr. Couillard, he pushed the economic benefits of the pipeline to both provinces.

A study by Deloitte suggests Energy East will contribute $6-billion to the GDP of Quebec over its lifetime, and $13-billion to Ontario.

He also pointed out that, without the pipeline, more oil will go by rail

— a more dangerous, expensive and polluting means of transporting crude.

That argument was bol-stered by new data from the National Energy Board that said shipping by rail in-creased by 22 per cent year on year, during the July to September period.

During the quar-ter, 182,059 bar-rels per day were exported by rail and the forecast is that by the end of next year, that number could rise to 1 million barrels a day — almost as large a volume as the Energy East pipeline is designed to carry.

If ever there was a “no-b r a i n -er” pipe-line, to b o r r o w f r o m S t e p h e n H a r p e r ’s d e s c r i p -tion of the k e y -stone project, this is it.

But the premiers of Quebec and Ontario, not to mention their voters, need to be con-vinced.

See PIPELINE on Page 26

“Alberta is the largest producer of oil in the world that is landlocked. To take advantage of global markets, we need partners.”

John Ivison National Post


emplOyment

“It was a war for talent” at the be-ginning of the decade, as compa-nies working in Canada’s oilsands were preparing for an expected job scope increase of 30 per cent by 2015, and when ConocoPhil-lips looked within its own ranks, it too did not have the skilled labour necessary to support its oilsands development, says Fabienne Mo-rin, director of strategic staffing.

“When we went out into the market, a lot of people didn’t know who ConocoPhillips was, not only from a campus point of view, but also from the target market we were trying to hire,” she told

the CI Energy Group Oil Sands Symposium.

Therefore, the company hired an agency to help create a brand specific to oilsands that would help hire 500-plus new workers in a highly-competitive market. The result was the four-year Make your Way Up Here campaign, which ends in December and achieved the goal attracting required new workers from across a broad spectrum.

“The recruitment campaign was very successful, and we saw an in-crease of applications by 155 per cent, with this campaign, from

2010 up to 2014,” Morin said, add-ing the agency started by conduct-ing interviews with field staff at the Surmont-1 project to find out what differentiated ConocoPhil-lips from other companies in the oilsands, as well as studying exit interviews to find out why staff were leaving the company for oth-er opportunities.

ConocoPhillips also hired four recruiters dedicated to the Sur-mont project, as well as diversity advisers to look at attracting and retaining workers from First Na-tions communities.

Morin said: “So the goal for us

was to focus our attention on the attraction and retention strate-gies.” The company considered what it could offer above com-pensation for new hires, which totalled 350 at Surmont-2 alone. Career advancement proved to be an important opportunity, and the campaign emphasized the differ-ence between a job and a career, suggesting ConocoPhillips offers the latter.

Diversity and inclusion were also important factors in the ConocoPhillips hiring campaign, Morin said, not only with in-creased use of regional Aboriginal

The recruitment campaign was very successful, and we saw an increase of applications by 155 per cent, with this campaign, from 2010 up to 2014.”

ConocoPhillips 4-year hiring campaign

populations, but with increased hiring rates of women as well. She noted a video the company showed at educational institutions demonstrating the “non-tradition-al” roles women could undertake in the field. The video was part of a larger appeal towards educational institutions to find more workers.

“We needed process operators and they weren’t coming out of the schools, and so we really built re-lationships with those schools so we could in two to three years time have process operators.”

ConocoPhillips moved outside the confines of Alberta as well,

focusing on a national campaign to attract workers. The company advertised shift scheduling that would enable those workers to work in the oilsands and regularly travel back to their homes across Canada.

The company also used a re-ferral program and a global-rotator program to pull skilled workers into Alberta oilsands operations.

According to Morin, the com-pany also spread its campaigns across multiple industries to find potential workers who could trans-fer their skills from one sector to

another. She said: “We weren’t re-ally tied to the oil and gas indus-try. We looked at refineries, and we looked at pump and paper.”

While hiring the necessary work-ers was important for the compa-ny, Morin said, so too was ensuring that such a flood of new employ-ees would not change ConocoPhil-lips in a way unbefitting of the or-ganization, which the company took into account when directing its campaign. “Imagine hiring 500 people and the impact that has on your culture.”

In conclusion, Morin told the symposium, ensuring companies

have enough new hires to achieve project goals in the oilsands re-quires early action, as was the experience during the four-year Make your Way Up Here campaign, which drew on human resources, communications and other re-sources within the company to help promote a brand that attracted candidates towards a career with ConocoPhillips.

“Not to say it has not been challenging,” she said, “but we have been successful, and we have hit our hiring each quarter.”


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