By DEIRDRE MITCHELL-MacLEAN.Energy Minister Sonya Savage tweeted the good news on Tuesday..“Another step in getting Alberta back to work. Cenovus is increasing spending next year in Alberta,” Savage tweeted..What the tweet didn’t answer was why Cenovus was waiting til next year..The UCP government had extended the NDP’s curtailment policy that restricts the number of barrels that privately-owned companies in Alberta can sell. .Rob Peabody, Husky Energy’s CEO, after his company laid off hundreds of workers, placed the blame squarely at the feet of the Alberta government’s curtailment policy. .“We would love to spend more in Alberta but, unfortunately, in Alberta … there are quotas in place that mean we could spend to develop crude oil but then they wouldn’t let us sell it,” Peabody told the CBC on October 24..Less than a week later, on Oct. 31, Savage announced further easing of curtailment, for new projects, not existing projects, and if they chose to transport by rail..“Cenovus plans to invest between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion in 2020, about 70 per cent of which is sustaining capital primarily to maintain base production at its Foster Creek and Christina Lake oil sand operations” said a press release on the company’s website. .“The increase in planned capital spending, compared with Cenovus’s 2019 forecast, is largely due to the deferral of sustaining capital in 2019 following the introduction of mandatory production curtailment in Alberta.”.Curtailment has slowly eased throughout the year from restricting production to 3.56 million barrels per day in January to a projected 3.81 million barrels per day in December..The UCP government has said they plan to maintain production limits until the fall of 2020.
By DEIRDRE MITCHELL-MacLEAN.Energy Minister Sonya Savage tweeted the good news on Tuesday..“Another step in getting Alberta back to work. Cenovus is increasing spending next year in Alberta,” Savage tweeted..What the tweet didn’t answer was why Cenovus was waiting til next year..The UCP government had extended the NDP’s curtailment policy that restricts the number of barrels that privately-owned companies in Alberta can sell. .Rob Peabody, Husky Energy’s CEO, after his company laid off hundreds of workers, placed the blame squarely at the feet of the Alberta government’s curtailment policy. .“We would love to spend more in Alberta but, unfortunately, in Alberta … there are quotas in place that mean we could spend to develop crude oil but then they wouldn’t let us sell it,” Peabody told the CBC on October 24..Less than a week later, on Oct. 31, Savage announced further easing of curtailment, for new projects, not existing projects, and if they chose to transport by rail..“Cenovus plans to invest between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion in 2020, about 70 per cent of which is sustaining capital primarily to maintain base production at its Foster Creek and Christina Lake oil sand operations” said a press release on the company’s website. .“The increase in planned capital spending, compared with Cenovus’s 2019 forecast, is largely due to the deferral of sustaining capital in 2019 following the introduction of mandatory production curtailment in Alberta.”.Curtailment has slowly eased throughout the year from restricting production to 3.56 million barrels per day in January to a projected 3.81 million barrels per day in December..The UCP government has said they plan to maintain production limits until the fall of 2020.
