Oil and Gas Sector Cautious as Clock Ticks Down to Trans Mountain Decision
“It’s
going to be a big deal. We are gridlocked here with our oil,” said CEO Clayton
Byrt of Pimee Well Servicing LP, a service rig company owned by six northern
Alberta First Nations.
“It’s
going to take some time to get that line built but that should open up world
markets for us as opposed to selling our oil at a discount to the U.S.”
Pimee
went from about 140 employees to 80 after an oil price crash in 2014 started
the current oilpatch downturn and has gradually built back to the original
level, Byrt said.
“We’re
trying to keep Indigenous people working on our rigs, we’re about 98 per cent
Indigenous,” he said.
“Market
conditions dictate how many people we can have working for us – that has a huge
affect on the First Nation ownership group if their people aren’t working.”
The
company counts Imperial Oil Ltd. and Cenovus Energy Inc. among its customers,
both of which have delayed building or completing steam-driven oilsands
projects because of uncertainty over how they will get the oil to market.
Pipeline
approval will boost the industry but isn’t expected to immediately benefit the
oilfield pressure vessel-making business at Cape Manufacturing Ltd., said
president Thomas Chadwick on Monday.
“It
should mean that we’ll see some more activity but it won’t be any time soon. I
mean, tomorrow is not like a light switch,” he said.
“If
the thing gets approved, it will take a year or two or more than that before we
see any change in activity.”
He
said he worries that pipeline construction work may lead to a tighter labour
market for the welders he employs at his shop near the small central
Albertavillage of Halkirk.
The
project to triple capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline will help
with market access when it comes on stream but that likely won’t happen until
2022 and could be held up by more legal challenges, said analyst Samir Kayande,
a director with RS Energy Group.
“Even
though (the decision) is positive and it’s important, the impact on the
investment climate will probably be a little bit muted at least until you can
actually start construction,” said Kayande.
“It
really depends on what the next round of legal challenges looks like.”
The
pipeline isn’t big enough to fix Western Canada’s oil transportation woes on
its own, he said.
RS
Energy figures it will take Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 replacement pipeline project
plus completion of either the Trans Mountain expansion or the Keystone XL
pipeline to relieve the glut of oil in the West that led to steeper-than-usual
discounts on Canadian crude oil last fall and allow for some production gains.
New pipelines won’t help Canada deal with a general downturn in energy investing throughout North America, nor can it make up for the lower quality of Canada’s energy resources compared to premier U.S. oil and gas basins, he said.