Tag Archives: Western Canada

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EDF EN Canada Inc. and Enbridge Acquire 300 MW Blackspring Ridge Wind Project

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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EDF EN Canada Inc. and Enbridge Acquire 300 MW Blackspring Ridge Wind Project


Largest wind project development in Western Canada

TORONTO & CALGARY, Alberta–(BUSINESS WIRE)– EDF EN Canada Inc., a subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles, and Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) (NYS: ENB) announced today they have jointly signed a purchase agreement with Greengate Power Corporation to acquire the 300 megawatt (MW) Blackspring Ridge Wind Project. Located in Vulcan County, Alberta (50 km north of Lethbridge), Blackspring Ridge will be the largest wind project in Western Canada when operational. EDF EN Canada and Enbridge will each own 50 percent of the project. The project represents the largest investment in wind energy in the province at approximately $0.6 billion.

The project, currently in late stage development, will be comprised of 166 Vestas V100-1.8 MW wind turbines. EDF EN Canada will build the project under a fixed price engineering, procurement and construction contract with construction expected to start in the second quarter of 2013 and reach commissioning in mid-summer 2014.

“The Canadian renewable energy market is a strong focus for EDF EN, having a significant presence in Ontario and Quebec since 2007. The Blackspring Ridge project presents a unique opportunity to establish EDF EN Canada in Western Canada and specifically in Alberta – a province with a promising electricity market,” said Cory Basil, Vice President, Development at EDF EN Canada. “Securing this project builds upon our relationship with Vestas and Enbridge and adds to our existing portfolio of over 1,000 MW of renewable energy projects in Canada. It further demonstrates the benefit of geographic diversification and illustrates our business objectives to balance and optimize assets to preserve our market leadership position across North America. And as important, the firm order is positive news for Vestas’ US based manufacturing plants.”

“Blackspring Ridge is an important addition to Enbridge’s fleet of renewable projects as it significantly expands our wind energy portfolio in the Alberta market, which we first entered nearly a decade ago with our Magrath and Chin Chute windfarms,” said Don Thompson, Vice President, Green Energy, Enbridge Inc. “Alberta is an attractive environment for wind investments due to its high wind capacity factor and access to transmission. Enbridge’s investment represents a further addition to its large suite of attractive commercially secured growth projects, reinforcing …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Articles of Interest

TransCanada Pipeline Project To Bring Crude Oil To Eastern Canada Welcomed By Government

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

TORONTO, April 2 (Reuters) – The Canadian government said on Tuesday it was encouraged by TransCanada Corp’s announcement that it plans to move forward on a plan to convert and build pipeline infrastructure to transport crude oil from Western Canada to eastern Canadian markets.
The project could potentially eliminate Canada‘s reliance on the higher priced crude oil that it currently imports to supply East Coast refineries.
Calgary, Alberta-based TransCanada, on Tuesday said its Energy East Pipeline would have the capacity to transport as much as 850,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
“Our government strongly supports initiatives to construct energy infrastructure to transport western Canadian oil to the east,” said Canada‘s Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver, during a press conference. “It is in the national interest to replace higher-cost foreign crude with lower-cost Canadian crude to consumers and refineries in Quebec and Atlantic Canada.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

2 Big Challenges for Canadian Oil Sands Producers

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By Arjun Sreekumar, The Motley Fool

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The Canadian province of Alberta contains some of the largest known reserves of recoverable oil sands anywhere in the world. Not only can these oil sands provide both the U.S. and Canada with greater energy security, but their continued development could also lead to tens of thousands of jobs and other economic benefits for both nations.

While production from Alberta’s oil sands has ramped up significantly in recent years, transporting the crude oil to U.S. refiners has proved a major obstacle. In fact, limited transportation infrastructure has been one of the biggest reasons for the massive price disparity between Canadian oil sands crude and other crude oil benchmarks like Brent and West Texas Intermediate.

Let’s take a closer look at these transport challenges, as well as some of the methods U.S. refiners have used to overcome them.

Transport difficulties
In transporting crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast, Canadian producers have encountered two main problems.

The first is the delay of the proposed northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, operated by Canadian midstream company TransCanada . Its construction continues to face serious opposition on environmental grounds, though it did recently get a major boost from a U.S. State Department study that concluded in its favor.

The second is the strong competition between Canadian oil sands crude and American crude supplies, such as those produced in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, for the limited pipeline capacity that currently exists.

As a result of these problems, Canadian oil sands crude – as reflected by the benchmark Western Canada Select – has traded at a massive discount to other crude oil benchmarks. Oil sands producers, which already face exorbitantly high production costs due to the complexity of oil sands drilling, have responded by reducing expenses.

For instance, Suncor , Canada‘s biggest oil and gas producer by market value, announced in December that it would reduce its capital spending budget for 2013 from C$7.5 billion to C$7.3 billion. And Canadian Natural Resources announced that it will be reducing expenses related to thermal sand production, a process commonly used in Alberta’s oil sands.

Rail emerges as a dominant alternative to pipelines
While Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge has attempted to combat some of these transport issues by boosting capacity on existing pipelines from Western Canada and by reversing some pipelines to transport crude into Eastern Canada, it hasn’t been enough to satisfy U.S. refiners. Faced with limited pipeline options, many are increasingly turning to rail and other methods to quench their thirst for heavy Canadian crude.

For instance, Phillips 66 recently said that it is now delivering Canadian crude to its California refineries via rail. Though it didn’t provide further details, the company does have prior experience in using rail to transport crude, having already purchased about 2,000 general purpose railcars to move inland oil to its refineries.

And Valero is also expecting to boost its use of rail and barge …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Ply Gem Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Results

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Ply Gem Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Results

CARY, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Ply Gem Holdings, Inc. (“Ply Gem” or the “Company”), a leading manufacturer of exterior building products in North America, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2012.

“Ply Gem‘s fourth quarter and full year results reflect the Company’s positive performance in 2012 in an improving housing market, specifically for new construction. During 2012, Ply Gem achieved net sales growth of 8.4% compared to 2011. Ply Gem continues to demonstrate its ability to grow existing and new customer business that will further benefit the Company as the housing market continues to recover. Ply Gem reported an increase in its fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA which improved to $24.7 million, bringing our 2012 full year Adjusted EBITDA to $124.7 million as compared to $112.2 million in the prior year,” said Gary E. Robinette, President and CEO of Ply Gem.

“As we go into 2013, we expect the new home construction market to show strong growth and anticipate the repair and remodeling market to demonstrate more modest growth, with big ticket remodeling expenditures continuing to lag. In the year ahead, we will continue our focus on maintaining a lean overall cost structure while striving to outperform the market across all of our product categories and continue our efforts to bring innovative products and solutions to the market place.” concluded Mr. Robinette.

Highlights of Ply Gem‘s 2012 financial results included:

  • Net sales for 2012 were $1,121.3 million, higher than 2011 net sales of $1,034.9 million by $86.4 million, or 8.4%.
  • Operating earnings for 2012 increased by $25.1 million to $70.0 million compared to operating earnings of $44.9 million for 2011, reflecting increased sales.
  • Our 2012 Adjusted EBITDA was $124.7 million compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $112.2 million in 2011.

Ply Gem, headquartered in Cary, N.C., is a leading manufacturer of exterior building products in North America. Ply Gem produces a comprehensive product line of vinyl siding, designer accents and skirting, vinyl fencing and vinyl and composite railing, stone veneer and vinyl windows and doors used in both new construction and home repair and remodeling in the United States and Western Canada. Ply Gem siding brands include Mastic Home Exteriors®, Variform®, NAPCO®, Ply Gem® Stone, Kroy®, Cellwood®, Georgia Pacific, DuraBuilt®, Richwood®, Leaf Relief®, Gutter Warrior™ and Monticello® …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Equinix Opens Second Seattle Data Center

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Equinix Opens Second Seattle Data Center

SE3 offers a gateway to Asia Pacific and supports growing demand for data center and interconnection services in Seattle metro area

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today announced the opening of its second International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center in downtown Seattle. The new SE3 data center is adjacent to Equinix’s SE2 data center, which is located in the Westin Building carrier hotel, offering a natural expansion space for customers with existing deployments in this location.

Demand for data center and interconnection services is growing in the Seattle metro area from network and cloud service providers, and content and digital media companies. The SE3IBX offers these companies the opportunity to extend their footprints in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada while leveraging Platform Equinix™ to help fuel their business.

“Equinix provides some of the best facilities and operational support out there, which is critical in meeting our customers’ expectations,” said Jesse Proudman, CEO of leading cloud and hosting services company Blue Box. “With our newly deployed infrastructure in SE3, we have no doubt that the network proximity and growth opportunities that Equinix’s ecosystem offers will further solidify our competitive edge.”

The new IBX will add approximately 51,000 square feet of data center space and capacity for more than 1,000 cabinet equivalents to Equinix’s presence in the Seattle market. Among the most connected data centers in the Seattle area, SE3 offers direct connectivity to the Seattle Internet Exchange (SIX). SE3 is a purpose-built site that offers 24-hour operations and security as well as physical features such as a dedicated loading dock, freight elevator, and state-of-the-art amenities. SE3 customers will also have access to the Equinix Marketplace to identify potential customers and partners from among the 4,000 ecosystem participants offering a range of services inside Equinix data centers.

“The Seattle market is an important communications hub for the Pacific Northwest and a distribution point for IP traffic to Asia Pacific. With SE3, we can offer the many cloud, network and digital content companies in Seattle the ability to directly connect with their customers and partners in order to improve application performance and generate new revenue opportunities,” said Charles Meyers, president of the Americas for Equinix.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Can Canada's Oil Sands Overcome This Huge Hurdle?

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By Arjun Sreekumar, The Motley Fool

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While it’s easy to get caught up in the euphoria surrounding America’s shale oil and gas revolution, let’s not forget that our neighbors to the north have also been blessed with massive reserves of unconventional oil and gas.

Though Canada might be better known for producing another sticky, brownish commodity – maple syrup – its province of Alberta lays claim to one of the largest reserves of recoverable oil sands anywhere in the world.

In addition to being plentiful, crude oil derived from Canada’s oil sands is as cheap as the dirt it’s separated from. It’s also denser and has higher sulfur content than crude produced in U.S. shale oil plays, which makes it attractive as a feedstock for many U.S. Gulf Coast oil refineries.

But Texas is a long way from Alberta and pipelines are few and far between, leaving energy producers with few options. While many refiners are making do with alternative forms of transportation, there should be pipeline relief on the way.

Limited transport options for Canadian crude
With new production of up to 250,000 barrels per day expected from Western Canada this year, new pipeline capacity is in high demand. But unfortunately, existing pipeline infrastructure transporting Western Canadian crude to American markets is bursting at the seams. As a result, Western Canadian crude is trading at a massive discount to the main American crude oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate.

While transport via rail and barge is serving as a temporary solution to deliver Canadian crude to Gulf Coast refiners, pipelines are still the most efficient and most economical long-term solution. Currently, U.S. companies use the Keystone XL pipeline, operated by TransCanada , to transport crude from Canada’s oil sands to a limited number of destinations in the U.S.

For instance, ConocoPhillips uses Keystone to move oil sands production to its Wood River refinery in Roxana, Ill. – about 15 miles northeast of St. Louis. The first delivery of crude to Wood River started in July 2010 and provides the refinery with greater flexibility in processing heavier grades of crude.

However, even with the expansion of the Seaway pipeline, operated jointly by Enbridge and Enterprise Products Partners , the volumes of crude from Canadian oil sands being shipped to the U.S. are relatively insignificant. As it stands, Canadian crude is finding its way to coastal Texas refineries at a rate of some 100,000 barrels per day – a relative trickle compared to the quantities of oil being shipped from the Eagle Ford and the Permian Basin, two prolific oil plays in Texas.

But in the years ahead, two projects are aiming to change all that. Let’s take a look at both.

Proposed new pipeline to St. James
On Feb. 15, Enbridge and Energy Transfer Partners announced that they have agreed to jointly develop a project that will allow pipeline access to eastern Gulf Coast refiners from a hub located in Patoka, Ill.  

The Patoka hub …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance