Category Archives: Oil & Gas

Kallisto #2. Competing Uses of Geological Space: Resolving Conflicts Between Oil Production and Natural Gas Storage Interests

By: Nigel Bankes

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Decision Commented On: Kallisto Energy Corp Application for a Well Licence, Crossfield East Field, July 23, 2013, 2013 ABAER 013

In a sequel to the ERCB’s Decision, Kallisto Energy Corp Application for a Well Licence Crossfield East Field, 2012 AERCB 005, February 24, 2012 (hereafter Kallisto # 1), the subject of an earlier ABlawg post, the new Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has handed down its decision on a proposal by Kallisto Energy to drill another oil well on lands immediately adjacent to CrossAlta’s natural gas storage facility north of Airdrie.

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Burnaby Refinery not a Priority Destination under Pipeline Tariff

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Case commented on: Chevron Canada Limited Priority Destination Designation Application (15 July 2013) MH-002-2012 (NEB).

Most shippers on the Trans Mountain Pipeline will no doubt be pleased with the recent decision of the National Energy Board (NEB) denying a Priority Destination Designation for Chevron’s Burnaby Refinery. Chevron applied for an order designating Chevron’s Burnaby Refinery as a Priority Destination pursuant to section 1.58 of the Tariff of Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC. The Burnaby Refinery serves a key function as it refines Alberta crude oil into gasoline for the Lower Mainland of BC.

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Obama Climate Change Speech Sets New Standard for Keystone Pipeline Debate

By: James Coleman

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Speech Commented On: Remarks by President Obama on Climate Change, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/25/remarks-president-climate-change

On June 25, President Obama unveiled a Climate Action Plan in a speech at Georgetown University (see here). This plan highlighted upcoming U.S. greenhouse gas standards for fossil-fuel power plants, directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue new proposals for both new and existing power plants. But the speech is making the most news for an unexpected reference to the Keystone XL pipeline, which is designed to transport oil sands bitumen from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska.

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Summary Judgement Ordered In Outstanding Coal Bed Methane Cases

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Case commented on: Encana Corporation v ARC Resources Ltd, 2013 ABQB 352.

Previous decisions of the Court of Queen’s Bench and the Court of Appeal (Encana Corporation v ARC Resources Ltd, 2011 ABQB 431, aff’d 2012 ABCA 271) gave summary judgement on many of the coalbed methane (CBM) cases that had been filed in the Alberta courts. Summary judgement was granted in these cases on the basis of an amendment to the Mines and Minerals Act, RSA 2000, c M-17 (now s10.1) adopted in 2010 which declared CBM “to be and at all times to have been natural gas”. See post here.

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Competition Law and the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry

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Decision commented on: 321665 Alberta Ltd. v Husky Oil Operations Ltd, 2013 ABCA 221.

I suspect that there will be sighs of relief in the board rooms of downtown Calgary (or at least so soon as the occupants of those office towers are able to think about something other than the consequences of the current disastrous flooding) as a result of this decision in which the Alberta Court of Appeal unanimously allowed an appeal on a civil action based on sections 36 and 45 of the federal Competition Act, RSC 1985, c C-34 (as they stood at the relevant time) which had been successful at trial.

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