March 2020
COVID-19 Announcement
PJVA Luncheon March 26, 2020
PJVA Luncheon February 20, 2020
CERI Breakfast Overview February 21, 2020
PJVA Nominations for Board of Directors 2020 – 2021
Recent developments during the first quarter of 2020
PENDING: Introduction to Facilities – April 13 – 16, 2020
JV Agreements – May 19 - 20, 2020
JP05 – June 9, 2020
COVID-19 Announcement
Like many of you, we have been monitoring closely the information and recommendation provided by public health officials regarding the COVID-19 outbreak in Alberta. In light of the current health circumstances and in order for our association to play a constructive role in containing the situation, we have decided to postpone or reschedule all events in March and April.
If you have registered for an affected event, your registration will automatically be transferred to the new date, once the new date has been determined. If you wish to be refunded, please email your request to: pjva@pjva.ca.
We thank you for your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Along with the rest of the world, we are paying close attention to up-to-date information and continue to monitor the situation closely. In the meantime, here are some tips everyone can follow to do our part:
- Cover your mouth and nose with your arm or tissues to reduce the spread of germs; and
- Immediately dispose of any tissues you have used into the garbage as soon as possible and wash your hands afterwards.
Helpful Resources:
- World Health Organization
- Public Health Agency of Canada
- Alberta Health Services
- Government of Canada
PJVA Luncheon March 26 — RESCHEDULED TO June 25, 2020
Coming June 25th, our next PJVA Luncheon is with Chris Rousch, President & Chief Executive Officer – Veresen Midstream. Come to hear his presentation, “How Midstream infrastructure can restore the Western Canadian Advantage” at the Calgary Petroleum Club, 11:00 am.
Western Canadian oil and gas producers continue to face significant challenges that affect their ultimate competitiveness when compared to other US shale plays. This discussion will focus on how Midstream companies can unlock value for producers, both through the optimization of existing assets and providing access to world markets for their products.
Chris Rousch was instrumental in the formation of Veresen Midstream and has been with the company since its inception in 2015. Previously, Chris was Vice President, Business Development and Vice President, Midstream at Veresen Inc. Chris also spent nine years at Provident Energy (now Pembina Pipeline Corporation) in progressively senior Engineering and Project Management roles.
$55.00 members, $65.00 non-members (plus gst)
Maureen McCall
PJVA Director - Programs-Luncheons
PJVA Luncheon February 20, 2020
On Feb 20th, the PJVA Luncheon was with Alberta’s Energy Minister, the Honourable Sonya Savage. With ongoing defiance of injunctions and protestors declaring they have no intentions to end the rail blockades quietly, the standoff over the Coastal GasLink Pipeline was on everyone’s mind as Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage took the podium at a PJVA event in Calgary last week. The Minister pulled no punches as she addressed the blockades and other critical issues in the Canadian Energy sector.
“Canada is in peril as railways and ports are shut down. Workers across the country have been laid off and critical goods are unable to move across the country. The economic toll is said to be $400 Million and counting. The rule of law and the constitutional foundation of our country in peace, order and good government is brought into question. We have a national government that is failing to act and failing to recognize the challenges that this is causing across our entire country. That’s what we are dealing with today after a decade long organized attack on our industry and it’s not a pretty story.”
Sonya Savage has extensive experience with pipeline challenges and successes. During her twelve years working in the pipeline industry, she has witnessed a decade long campaign to landlock the oilsands- the “Tar Sands Campaign”. She restated something that Canadians in many parts of Canada don’t know - that the Tar Sands Campaign was launched in New York City in 2008 when a couple of dozen environmental groups joined forces in a coordinated attack on the Oilsands with the help of hundreds of millions of dollars. She’s tracked the campaign’s steps to target the Northern Gateway and Energy East pipelines, Line 9 and Line 3, Keystone XL and the Trans Mountain Expansion. The campaign also targeted the National Energy Board- discrediting it and resulting in what is now Bill C-69. It left most major projects and potential investors in Canada in limbo for the last five years. She pointed out that the well-organized campaign has resulted in a lack of pipeline capacity, widening differentials, production curtailment and a jobs crisis in Alberta. It led to an increased inventory in inactive and orphan wells as companies struggled to obtain capital and financing. She acknowledged that the decade long campaign of organized opposition was ignored or underestimated by Industry and Government alike and heavily contributed to economic struggles and the situation we are dealing with today across the economy, with blockades paralyzing the country.
Her solutions? First, to vigorously defend the exclusive provincial jurisdiction under the Canadian constitution that gives provinces the right to develop their natural resources under section 92A (added in 1982) confirming exclusive provincial jurisdiction (the Peter Lougheed amendment). In addition, she plans to vigorously challenge Bill C-69, which added In Situ production to the list of projects that will be assessed and either approved or not approved by the Federal Government adding that In Situ has never had a touch point that would be assessed by the Federal government.
C-69 also added gas-fired electricity generation to the project list, which is set in our constitution to be the exclusive jurisdiction of the provinces. Minister Savage insisted that the Federal government needs to be reminded that those projects are with the jurisdiction of the provinces. The good news is that Ontario and Saskatchewan have joined Alberta in the constitutional challenge on C-69, and actually 9 out of 10 provinces now support Alberta’s position on C-69 - the outlier being the province of BC. Other actions are part of the strategy to make Alberta a positive business environment and an attractive jurisdiction such as lowering the corporate tax rate and reducing red tape are in the mix along with an overhaul of the Alberta Energy regulator to create a certain and predictable process to make Alberta competitive.
“We are also closely watching what the Federal government does with Teck Resources Frontier Mine approval. A rejection of that project by the Federal government would not only be, I believe unconstitutional, but it would tear apart national unity and it would most certainly lead to more constitutional challenges, more uncertainty, more unpredictability, and challenges right across the entire country. So, in Alberta, we’re going to defend our jurisdiction with absolutely everything we have. We fought these battles forty years ago and got section 92A into the constitution. Peter Lougheed fought those battles and today, forty years later, we’re not going to give up one inch of ground to the Federal government.”
Savage stated that much of current Industry malaise is rooted in the Energy sector’s approaches to communications over the last decade and outlined strategies.
“We're communicating better to counter the type of myths and lies about Alberta’s Oil and Gas Sector- the types of lies that went unchallenged for over a decade. For instance, just last month, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called for the cancellation of the Coastal GasLink and Trans Mountain Pipelines. It’s absolutely absurd that this committee would single out Canada. Canada - one of the only countries in the entire world that recognizes Indigenous rights in its constitution - one of the greatest champions in the world of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. So, we highlighted the work done by Coastal Gaslink to earn the support of all twenty Elected First Nations along the pipeline’s route and the work that Trans Mountain has done with communities along its route to support that project. It led the UN committee to admit that it wasn’t even aware that there was Indigenous support for these projects and furthermore they admitted that they had done absolutely nothing to verify the communique that they put out.”
She addressed questions about the Canadian Energy Centre, that like any start up organization has experienced some hiccups.
“If the events of the last week demonstrate anything (public protests blockading Rail etc. across Canada) it’s that we need the Canadian Energy Centre- we need to be able to communicate, we need it to be successful. There are those who have worked relentlessly with a goal to make the CEC unsuccessful. They are the same people who oppose Oil and Gas. Some of it comes from organized campaigns, like the Tar Sands Campaign. They were always going to target the Canadian Energy Centre to make it fail. We have to make it succeed and it’s my goal to ensure it has the tools to succeed. You are going to see some more focus in the coming days on Energy literacy, on Data and Research and on Ad Campaigns.”
A big part of the solution is the transformation of the Energy sector by the Alberta Government’s development of an ESG strategy- to tell the world and investors that the industry in Alberta produces energy in the most environmentally sustainable and socially responsible manner through a combination of policy, technology and market-driven solutions including Net Zero goals. In addressing a question about what the Provincial ESG program will look like for Operators, the answer was that the strategy development process will be inclusive.
“We have a working group working on a strategy with Operators and David Knight Legg and the Premier’s Office have been working to develop what an ESG strategy will look like. Whatever we do in this province we are going to do with input from our producers. That’s because we’re doing this for our Oil and Gas sector so we can have the ability to grow it – not just continue at the levels we are producing now. Here in Alberta, we have the third largest reserves of oil anywhere in the world. Over 170 Billion barrels in the Oilsands. We know we want to grow them. We have to grow them – They belong to Albertans. But to do it, we need an ESG strategy, that shows the world that they’ll want to continue to invest in Alberta.“
Very big challenges ahead – Glad to hear we have the talent and experience of Minister Savage, together with the entire Alberta government relentlessly focused on addressing them.
Maureen McCall
PJVA Director - Programs-Luncheons
CERI Breakfast Overview February 21, 2020
On February 21, I attended the CERI (Canadian Energy Research Institute) Breakfast Overview.
“Calgary - Breakfast Overview: Electricity versus Fossil Fuels”
Many cities around the world, including many in Canada, are exploring alternative options to reduce GHG emissions from transportation. These options include fuel and vehicle technology switching, improving vehicle fuel economy, changing operating practices and reducing transportation demand through urban planning. The most likely sources of energy would be solar, wind and CCS natural gas.
A highly informative and well researched presentation, especially relevant in the modern-day economic climate, CERI breakfast overviews are worthwhile addition to enriching one’s perspective, especially the day after the presentation by Minister Savage.
Peter Mitchelmore
PJVA Newsletter Editor
PJVA Nominations for Board of Directors 2020 – 2021
Each April, a call for nominations for new Board Members goes out to the PJVA membership. In anticipation of this upcoming call, we encourage any PJVA members who may be willing or interested in serving on the Board, to start to consider whether this is a role that they would like to take on.
Board terms are 2 years in length. Time commitments required vary among portfolios, and some portfolios will require volunteer recruitment and coordination to meet deliverables. Serving in a Director’s role is challenging at times, demanding at others, but always offers great opportunities for personal development and learning, in addition to the opportunity to contribute to the guidance and sustainment of our association.
Please give some thought to putting your name forward and watch for the nomination forms that will come out with the April JV Views edition. If you have any questions about the nomination and election process, or the requirements of the roles, please reach out to the Nominations Committee c/o pjva@pjva.ca
Recent developments during the first quarter of 2020
*Articles written and published by EnergyNow, February 24, 2020
There have been numerous events during the first two months of 2020, largely interlinked.
- The OPP moved in on protesters at the Wet’suwet’en rail blockades in eastern Ontario.
- Teck withdrew its application for the Frontier Oil Sands mine, citing debate around climate policy.
- Alberta court of appeal ruled that the federal carbon tax is unconstitutional.
- Covid-19, also known as Coronavirus, has caused some economic uncertainty which includes oil and gas prices.
*The newsletter may contain material sourced from to third party websites. The material is provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by PJVA of the contents on such third party Websites. PJVA is not responsible for the content of third party sourced material and does not make any representations regarding the content or accuracy of materials on such third party Websites, or the availability of such Websites. If you decide to access third party Websites, you do so at your own risk.
Peter Mitchelmore
PJVA Newsletter Editor
Introduction to Facilities – April 13 – 16, 2020 – 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm each day
(exam April 23 if taking the full Certificate Program)
May be postponed....however registrations are still open
For the non-engineer, you will learn a broad range of engineering techniques and concepts that affect field development, facilities and operations which, ultimately, roll up to the joint venture team to manage under an agreement. This course is also an in depth look at various Gas Facilities and Oil Facilities; each section comprises Reservoir, Gathering and Processing, Transportation and Marketing of products. Most of all, you will learn to understand your engineers and apply that understanding to the JV arrangements.
JV Agreements – May 19 - 20, 2020
PJVA has revamped the JV Agreements Seminar with a bigger focus on Ownership and Service Agreements, and the importance of creating and maintaining a proper agreement. Whether you need to create a Gas Handling Agreement or a CO&O, this seminar will introduce you to the many PJVA model agreements and how best to use them!
This two-day introduction level course is designed to provide an overview and basic understanding of the new Construction, Ownership and Operating Agreement, Unitization Agreements, Gas Handling and other agreements. The CAPL Joint Operating Agreement and PASC Accounting Procedure, as they relate to Joint Venture Agreements, will also be presented by knowledgeable members of CAPL and PJVA. To achieve maximum benefit from this seminar a participant should either have had limited prior exposure to joint venture agreements or desire a refresher on current joint venture agreement model forms. Some prior exposure to joint venture operations would be helpful. Most suitable for individuals involved in engineering, land, operations, administration and accounting.
JP05 – June 9, 2020
The JP-05 workshop will cover the following topics:
- How capital and operating fees are determined using JP-05
- Importance of disclosure, collaboration and negotiation
- Case study for negotiation and determination of fees
- Discussion of case studies
- Regulatory issues relating to JP-05
The facilitators for this workshop are the original authors of the JP-05 Report.
This workshop will be appropriate for anyone who is in a position that requires more knowledge in the negotiation and calculation of Gas Processing Fees.
Upcoming Events
PJVA Luncheon
June 25, 2020
PENDING: PJVA JV Certificate Program: Facilities 101
April 13-16, 2020
PJVA 2 Day Seminar: JV Agreements
May 19-20, 2020
PJVA Seminar: JP05 Workshop
June 9, 2020