Canada

Maritimes Canada natural gas consumers should consider taking up to 600 MMcf/d of firm pipeline capacity from the Marcellus Shale to ensure security of supply and avoid the $30/MMBtu gas prices seen last winter, ICF Consulting Canada Inc. said in a new study prepared for the Nova Scotia Department of Energy.

TransCanada Corp.’s first quarter earnings were positively impacted by the recent decision by Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) on the company’s Mainline restructuring proposal, the company said Friday. TransCanada also pushed back the in-service date of its long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline to late 2015 from the previously planned late 2014/early 2015 due to regulatory delays.

Koch Pipeline Co. LP is holding a nonbinding open season for the Dakota Express Pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the Bakken Shale in western North Dakota to Hartford and Patoka, IL. A connection at Patoka to the Eastern Gulf Crude Access Pipeline to carry crude to Gulf Coast refineries is also contemplated.

Doug Suttles, the former operating chief for BP plc’s global exploration and production arm, on Tuesday took the helm of Canada’s largest natural gas producer, Encana Corp., as CEO and president.

CN, Canada’s national railway, said it plans to accelerate work on a US$33 million project to upgrade a 74-mile section of the Whitehall Subdivision line in Wisconsin. The upgrade between the towns of Wisconsin Rapids and Blair would allow increased car-loading capacity and train velocity for hydraulic fracture (frack) sand suppliers Badger Mining Corp., Preferred Sands of Wisconsin LLC, Atlas Resin Proppants LLC and Taylor Frac LLC. After the upgrade, CN would be able to transport heavier freight cars loaded with frack sand, up to a maximum of 286,000 pounds. CN, which began the work in 2012, plans to complete the project by December 2014, a year ahead of time.

Onshore drilling activity in the United States and Canada has begun to pick up, with excess pressure pumping capacity “being absorbed ever so slowly,” the top financial officer for Baker Hughes Inc. said this week.

During the first quarter, Quicksilver Resources Inc. lost more money than Wall Street was expecting as the company continued to “hammer on the cost side” of its business, deferring elective spending in the energy patch and cutting back on staff.

There appears to be no scarcity of global shale gas opportunities, but it may be two years — or longer — before drilling progresses to commercial success, according to Raymond James & Associates Inc.

TransCanada Corp. has applied to Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) for review and variance of the board’s late March decision on the pipeline company’s 2012-2013 restructuring proposal for tolls and service on its Canadian Mainline.