Postcards from Calgary

Okay, these aren’t really postcards, but they are facts, observations and tidbits gathered by this editor after attending the recent Global Energy Show Canada (GESC) in Calgary, June 11-13. Billed as “Canada’s national energy convention,” the event hosted nearly 32,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors from 103 countries. By comparison, the 2023 version of GESC attracted over 30,000 attendees and 600 companies from over 110 countries.

This event was held in the newly expanded BMO Centre, Fig. 1. When it first opened in 1981, it was known as the Round-up Centre. The venue was expanded in 2000 to include an exhibit hall and new ballroom. Further expansion occurred in 2009, when new meeting rooms and another exhibit hall were added. In March 2016, the Calgary Stampede organization announced a $500 million project to expand the BMO Centre further and demolish the adjacent Stampede Corral. Construction finally began in 2021 and was completed in March 2024. The 565,000-ft² expansion was officially dedicated on June 5, 2024, and the GESC was the first event to be held in the new addition. Totaling 1 million ft,² the BMO Centre is the largest convention center in Calgary and the largest in Western Canada.

GESC is noticeably different from when I last attended it in 2018 and 2019. Back then, the name was Global Petroleum Show. And attendance averaged between 45,000 and 50,000. The show had to be housed in multiple buildings in Stampede Park, and wind and solar exhibitors were rather scarce. At that time, plenty of the larger American oil & gas service/supply companies occupied space on the exhibit floor.

GESC today. So, fast-forward five years, and the differences in GESC are noticeable. Non-petroleum exhibitors accounted for at least 50% of the floor space in 2024. All of the exhibition was housed in the expanded BMO Centre. Featuring 70 expert speakers, the GESC Strategic Conference provided critical knowledge and insights on the latest trends, energy policy, outlook, and growth drivers for a wide range of energy forms. Ditto for the GESC Technical Conference, which featured over 70 technical presentations focusing on the latest technologies and processes covering the full energy spectrum. There also were five roundtable discussions on topics such as “Clean Technology Adoption,” “Innovations in Oilfield Technologies,” “The Transformative Potential of Hydrogen,” “Strategies for CCUS,” and the ongoing “Digitalization/Digital Transformation.”

Meanwhile, all those U.S. service/supply companies that were present five years ago were gone, replaced by medium- and small-sized niche firms that mostly focused on wind, solar and CCS. Plenty of Alberta and Saskatchewan officials were on hand during the three days of GESC to speak on various energy issues, headed by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

The political angle and Trudeau’s “gag law.” Speaking of politicians, federal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Fig. 2) continues to be very unpopular in provinces outside Ontario and Quebec, and that sentiment was certainly in evidence at GESC. It all has to do with a federal budget bill that has some crazy provisions. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith calls the bill “draconian,” while Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe calls it censorship against the oil and gas industry.

As explained by the Regina Leader-Post, Bill C-59, which passed through the Canadian Senate and was given Royal Assent on June 20, is not an ordinary budget bill. What the premiers are upset about are provisions in the bill, including one added in late as an amendment that they say targets oil and gas companies from speaking about their business. Not surprisingly, several industry groups have come out against the bill.

You see, Section 236 of Bill C-59 added two new paragraphs to the Competition Act that allows the “competition commissioner” to review statements made by companies regarding climate change. So, notes the newspaper, the act now allows the commissioner to look at statements where a business makes claims about “protecting or restoring the environment or mitigating the environmental and ecological causes or effects of climate change.” Any claims must be backed up by “adequate and proper substantiation in accordance with internationally recognized methodology.”

Industry executives says the bill’s wording is “incredibly vague.” I would change that description to “deliberately vague.” As explained by the newspaper, if an oil company said that they had reduced their CO₂ emissions caused by production by 30%, anyone could challenge that claim to the competition commissioner. The company would have to show its evidence to back up the claim, but if the commissioner didn’t like what the company presented, they could be taken to court and face fines of $10 million or more. It’s just insane.

“This is being done to intentionally intimidate boards and shareholders, silence debate and amplify the voices of those who oppose Canada’s world-leading energy industry,” said Alberta’s Smith. “This is a gag law. It’s a federal gag law,” said Saskatchewan Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre. The newspaper said that the two provinces are considering all options, including legal challenges to the federal regime.

The Regina Leader-Post ended its story by saying, “Replacing this government can’t happen soon enough.” This sentiment matches with a number of folks that I talked to on the GESC show floor. They all said something similar to “it’s too bad we have to wait a year-and-a-half for another federal election, because these devils (Trudeau and his cabinet) need to go.”

Will UK Conservatives be out on July 4? Speaking of bad government, this editor has listed and detailed the poor energy policy decision-making and shortcomings of the UK’s Conservative government for a number of months. Sometimes, Rishi Sunak (Fig. 3) and his crew have behaved more like a Labour regime than a Conservative administration, and the results have been debilitating for oil and gas.

And now comes a UK federal election on July 4, which is rather an ironic date to have it, since that day is the anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776. One would think that British authorities would recognize the symbolism and optics of having their election on that date, but apparently not. Anyway, as bad as the Conservatives have been, a Labour government would be far worse, given that party’s very obvious hate for oil and gas.

But it appears that the UK is on the verge of electing a Labour regime. A new Redfield and Wilton poll of 10,000 voters, released on June 24, showed Labour favored by 42% of voters. Even more notable is that the Reform Party led by Nigel Farage has climbed ahead of the Conservatives, gaining 19% of voters, compared to 18% for the Tories. This has prompted analysts to speculate as to whether the Conservative Party is on its last legs. Comparisons are being made with the collapse of the Liberal Party led by David Lloyd George, which dropped from 400 MPs in 1906 to just 40 in 1924. And the Liberal share of the popular vote in that period plummeted from 49% to 18%. We’ll see how it all sorts out on July 4.

China emits more than the U.S. and Europe, combined. A couple of months ago, The Empowerment Alliance, which seems to advocate for an “all of the above” energy strategy in the U.S., put out an interesting list of U.S. achievements on emissions and corresponding Chinese failures. To wit:

1. Since 1970, combined emissions of key pollutants have dropped by 78% in the U.S.
2. In 2022 alone, the U.S. shift to natural gas provided an emissions reduction equivalent to 156 coal-fired power plants operating for a year.
3. Since 2005, natural gas used for U.S. power generation has cut nearly double the emissions that renewable sources like wind and solar have eliminated.

Meanwhile, says TEA, China has also been a leader—in the opposite direction:

1. China has had the largest increases in emissions, surpassing any other country in the world by far.
2. China supplies 60% of the minerals needed for wind and solar energy and electric vehicles and processes 85% of them—and they create “cancer villages” from polluted mine waste and use slave labor to do so.
3. China is responsible for 60% of the world’s coal use and two-thirds of the new coal plants that were built in 2023.
   

Those are some mighty interesting statistics. WO

IN THIS ISSUE

Special focus: Artificial Lift. This month’s lead theme includes four features. In one item, authors from Lifting Solutions discuss how a coated continuous sucker rod lowers RRP and PCP operating costs. A second feature from two Baker Hughes experts details how a new technology allays permanent magnet motor safety concerns and enables better ESP performance. In a third article, a group of SLB and APS professionals describes a special project that explains the symptoms of each cause of ESP failure to determine ways to improve OPEX by tracking ESP failures, ranging from 90 days up to 900 days. Finally, in an article that also relates to production optimization, an SPM Oil & Gas expert says that deeper, more complex, mature wells incur greater wear and tear, and upgrading rod rotators allows companies to extend rod lift systems’ operational life, minimize NPT and overall costs, and optimize production.

Production optimization: Rethinking sand management for optimized production. An author from FourPhase say that over the past decade, FourPhase has gathered solids management data from more than 150,000 hrs of operation. Vast amounts of data yield completely new perspectives. Rather than viewing sand production as a challenge, the firm recognizes its positive aspects in reservoir management. Producing sand can be positive for a well, if done in a controlled manner.

G&G technology: Faster and better subsurface imaging for reservoir optimization. An author from STRYDE discusses the significance of nodal technology for geophysical data acquisition in the oil and gas industry, and his firm’s participation in the world’s largest nodal survey in the Middle East.

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