ARC Financial

Everyone east of the Rocky Mountains is looking over their shoulders to the BC election. What transpires in Victoria tomorrow will confirm the principle that government policy exerts a big influence in society’s love-hate relationship with energy. Read More

Transporting large volumes of North American oil by rail seems like yesterday’s news, but slick corporate brochures from the likes of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) gives a sense that the train carrying this trend has barely left the station, that the wheeled assault on the pipeline industry has just begun. Read More

Reorienting Canada’s natural gas exports seems easy enough. In principle, it’s like pulling a garden hose from the south side of a garden and then flinging it across the hips to water the needy patches to the west. Read More

The slide flashed up, on two screens, in a hall of over a thousand conference attendees. No one gasped, even though oil prices were already showing signs of erosion a couple of weeks ago. The data seemed matter-of-fact to an oil and gas crowd that has been desensitized to drilling frenzies and gusher wells that are enough to make John Wayne smile in his grave. Read More

“This question keeps getting repeated: “Will shale gas and tight oil technologies proliferate beyond North America?” Read More

Right now the energy complex here in North America is so dynamic that it’s easy to miss what’s happening in the rest of the world. Some revealing data about global oil disruptions, recently published by the Energy Information Agency (EIA), suggests a look over the shoulder. Read More

Natural gas prices appear to be waking up from their two-year coma. The revival, though still nascent, is a welcome signal for cash-starved producers. But will the rally sustain? Read More

Right now there is unprecedented scarcity of public capital available for oil and gas companies. Read More

Small upstart companies are usually associated with high-growth disruptive technologies that change the world. Read More

Let’s talk barrel half full, instead of half empty.

To this point, the discourse around deeply discounted Canadian oil prices has, justifiably, been negative. Nobody likes losing money. But there are unintended, upbeat consequences that have arisen from the prevailing commodity price malaise. For one thing, Canada’s oil industry is kicking the pants of competitive suppliers to the US. Read More