The Drilldown: Floating barges on the horizon for Rockies LNG Partners – iPolitics.ca

The Lead

As Canadas fleet continues to age, the availability for vessels to take on major projects is becoming scarce. This fall, an oceanographic survey with the goal of monitoring climate change was cancelled by Fisheries and Oceans Canada because there were no vessels available to take on Atlantic waters. Hudson, the Canadian Coast Guard science ship, is regularly tasked with working on the offshore Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) but was not able to because it had not had its life extension check completed.

Similarly, Coriolis II, a private research vessel brought on by Fisheries and Oceans Canada for 2019, has been considered unable to participate in the Maritimes region survey, according to Robin Jahn, representative for Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The oceanographic survey is tasked with collecting and analyzing physical, chemical and biological data from Canadas East Coast in order to evaluate the changes that the ocean is experiencing. Dave Hebert, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said that one of the issues is to determine whether or not its a long-term trend or just year-to-year variability.

AZMP has never been cancelled before, and one of the many outcomes of this will be the loss of half a year of plankton sampling, which will distort the results of year-to-year data collection says CBC News.

Internationally

The international oil industry continues to be burdened by the heightened trade conflict between the U.S. and China this year.

At an energy conference in Abu Dhabi this week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) secretary general Mohammad Barkindo stated that smoothing out a trade deal between the U.S. and China will almost remove that dark cloud that had engulfed the global economy, according to The Globe and Mail.

Next month, OPEC+, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies such as Russia, is scheduled to meet and discuss the cutbacks that were made to oil production this past January to balance supply and demand. According to UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei, slashes made to oil output have done what they were supposed to do and have resulted in more stable prices.

In Canada

Developing a floating liquefied natural gas facility off the coast of B.C. is on the horizon for Rockies LNG Partners, a coalition of Canadian natural gas producers comprised of companies such as Peyto Exploration & Development Corp., and Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. According to Chief Executive Officer Greg Kist of Rockies LNG, floating barges would have a significantly smaller environmental impact.

Kist explained that in Northern British Columbia, there are limited flat pieces of land, so if you could remove significant cost and impact associated with trying to flatten a piece of land, we think that thats a much better outcome than land-based facilities. He said that the only land-based infrastructure required would be a control room, jetty structures and bunking for workers because the LNG equipment would be on a facility based on the water.

Three barges would be needed for the project that the Rockies LNG Partners are considering, which is estimated to produce 12 million tons of natural gas a year, Bloomberg reported. The partnership hopes to find a project site at the beginning of 2020 and aims to have the project up and running by 2026.

Noteworthy

West of the oilsands, another sector suffers its own existential crisis (The Financial Post)

Nine oil companies to watch during the green energy push (The Globe and Mail)

TSX futures slip after Trump threatens to increase tariffs (Reuters)

Saudis Are Urged Not to Miss the Train on Aramco IPO (The Wall Street Journal)

Venice partly submerged by highest tides in half a century (The Washington Post)

India says it plans to use hydrogen-based fuel to tackle air crisis (The Guardian)

The climate chain reaction that threatens the heart of the Pacific (The Washington Post)

Air pollution nanoparticles linked to brain cancer for first time (The Guardian)

In Opinion

In an effort to mitigate domestic emissions, countries such as the U.S. have been exporting their carbon footprint, sending dirtier energy production methods like coal abroad. Joe Oliver, previously federal minister of finance in 2014 and 2015, claims that the substitution effect should be considered when analyzing the problem of global carbon leakage.

Oliver explained that if Canada started expanding pipeline infrastructure to its coasts, the countrys oil and gas supply would be able to reach international markets in Europe and Asia. He said that although this would increase Canadas emissions, more exportation would allow countries to stop being so reliant on coal and would reduce the global emission footprint altogether.

There is a disconnect between an allegedly existential threat of global warming and policies that are ineffective and frequently undermine green goals, said Oliver in his column in Financial Post. He believes that this disconnect will continue to grow until Canada recognizes that building pipelines will actually reduce global GHG emissions.

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The Drilldown: Floating barges on the horizon for Rockies LNG Partners - iPolitics.ca