Mining News: Junior targets tungsten-moly deposits 12/28/2008
Mineral-rich Northern Dancer claims offer opportunity to develop one of the world's largest known sources of strategic metal
NORTHERN DANCER PROJECT, Yukon Territory – Folded into the rocks of this remote valley astride the border between Yukon Territory and British Columbia is at least 20 percent of the world's known tungs...

Canadians hanging tough 07/20/2008
Going global not for faint-hearted; 84 Canadian firms have international stakes
No matter how uneasy they might feel about the misadventures of EnCana in Ecuador, Talisman Energy in Sudan, PetroKazakhstan in Kazakhstan and First Calgary Petroleums in Algeria, Canadian-based energ...

Canadian drillers try to regain luster 07/06/2008
Schlumberger buying Saxon, but no takeover wave expected as Canada oversupplied with rigs; Precision, Ensign move rigs to U.S.
Emerging battered and bruised from the roughest ride in its recent history, Canada's service sector has reason to hope the worst is over as gas prices lock in above $10 per thousand cubic feet. Whethe...

Ivanhoe to use own technology in sands 06/08/2008
A unit of international mining company Ivanhoe Mines has taken a plunge into the Alberta oil sands, hoping to use proprietary heavy oil upgrading technology to develop a commercial project. Vancouver-...

MINING NEWS: Junior Goldmark backs away from Iliamna deal 05/25/2008
Despite setbacks in Alaska, Chile and changing markets, Goldmark vows to continue to seek investment, exploration opportunities
Goldmark Minerals Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta has opted not to pursue an acquisition agreement with Geocom Resources Inc. to acquire all of Geocom's interest in the Iliamna property in Alaska, and 49 per...

EnCana chases market value 05/18/2008
Big independent opts to split oil, natural gas, dropping from top gas rung; rest of industry takes 'wait-and-watch' attitude
just six years ago, when it was created from a merger of Alberta Energy Co. and PanCanadian Petroleum, EnCana had a grand dream to become a "global super-independent." But political risks in places su...

MINING NEWS: Alaska tumbles in mining policy ranking 03/30/2008
Mining survey reflects growing uneasiness in industry about Alaska's public policies, mixed results among Canadian jurisdictions
Alaska would be a great place for mining companies to do business if not for the state's increasingly onerous regulatory and fiscal policies, according to the latest results of a well-respected indust...

Alaska well-placed in global survey 12/23/2007
As reported in last week's issue of Petroleum News, Alaska trails Wyoming and Colorado among U.S. states, but edges out all Canadian provinces except Saskatchewan in a study of investment "friendlines...

Alberta getting nudged off center-stage as tax hikes prompt big EandP companies to shift capital spending to United States 12/23/2007
The verdicts are rolling in for Alberta's proposed new royalty regime as the leading EandP companies take the wrapping off their 2008 capital budgets. But, in the process, those companies are reinforcin...

Ecuador's president urges political role for OPEC 11/25/2007
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, in his first public speech since his country's official re-entry into OPEC, said Nov. 18 that the 13-nation oil producer group must take on a more political role an...

Ecuador seeks money not to drill in reserve 06/10/2007
In an unusual move for an oil-producing nation, Ecuador's leftist president is turning to the international community to provide the poor Andean nation with funding in exchange for abandoning a projec...

MINING NEWS: Northern Dynasty tops most juniors on market cap 04/29/2007
Mining boom prompted accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to analyze top 100 companies listed on Canada's TSX Venture Exchange
Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty, whose sole asset is the Pebble project in southwest Alaska, is the only junior mining company to remain in the top five on the TSX Venture Exchange or TSX-V by market...

Oil Patch Insider 06/18/2006
We interrupt this message ... Columbia stumbles; Firm protests PN's coverage of Arctic claim Timing being everything, the Colombian government must be wondering what they did to have events conspire...

Soaring energy prices fuel takeovers 05/07/2006
Nationalization of Bolivian natural gas is part of a broader global wave souring investment climate for international companies
First Russia. Then Venezuela. Now Bolivia. Soaring energy prices are fueling a global wave of natural-resource nationalization that is souring the investment landscape for international oil companies...

Global trend reaches Canada High Arctic 06/04/2006
Turmoil in South America and other regions sharpens focus on remote 'discovered and secure' northern frontier resources
The tsunami washing over some of the least predictable oil and gas regions on the planet has managed to lap at the shores of Canada's Arctic Islands. The unexpected hostile run Petro-Canada is taking...

EnCana beats estimate on asset sale 03/12/2006
Natural gas storage operations bring in US$1.5B, up 50% from estimates; company close to wrapping up sale offshore Brazil
EnCana has put one of the final touches on a large-scale divestiture program that started when it was created four years ago by pocketing US$1.5 billion for the bulk of its natural gas storage operati...

Oil Patch Insider 03/05/2006
Three-year contract on jack-up for Cook Inlet; Alaska gas pipeline contract in 2-3 weeks; Canadian rumor that won't quit
On Feb. 23 at the Pac Com conference in Anchorage, Escopeta Oil President Danny Davis announced his company and partner Centurion Gold had agreements in place to bring a jack-up rig to Alaska's Cook I...

Invaders on the horizon 01/29/2006
Canadian-owned companies shed foreign production, brace for possible takeovers
Having ended a year when its companies staged a major pullback from global operations, Canada could face a year when a foreign invasion changes the complexion of its domestic industry. Producing prope...

Oxy pays big bucks for Vintage 10/23/2005
Occidental Petroleum sets merger value $3.8B, 33% premium over stock price; deal includes coveted Argentine, California assets
Occidental Petroleum, breaking with its tradition of buying individual assets rather than whole companies, plans to acquire exploration and production independent Vintage Petroleum in a merger valued...

Ecuador prepares to renegotiate contracts 10/02/2005
President Alfredo Palacio's government will ask the French Institute of Petroleum to assist in renegotiating contracts with foreign oil companies to give the Andean nation a greater share of petroleum...

Report: Canadian EandPs cover global bases 08/07/2005
Ian Doig finds international output from Canadian companies up 10 percent on a crude oil equivalent basis from 2003 to 2004
As Canadian EandP companies venture beyond their domestic frontiers, to both spread their investment risks and take advantage of cheaper finding and development costs, their international spending and p...

EnCana quitting gas storage business 06/26/2005
The leaning down of EnCana to a pure resource company will see North America's largest natural gas storage network either sold for a possible US$600 million-$900 million or spun off in an initial publ...

Ecuador energy minister says nation to review all current deals 05/22/2005
Ecuador will review all of its current oil contracts with foreign companies, the country's self-described "nationalist" energy minister said in an interview published May 16. In an interview with the...

Noble, Patina shareholders OK merger 05/15/2005
Shareholders of exploration and production independents Noble Energy and Patina Oil and Gas approved the proposed merger of the two companies in special meetings held May 11. In the merger, Patina stock...

EXPLORERS USA 2005: EnCana in pursuit of the 'big thing' 05/08/2005
Morgan forsakes diversification, steers company to Rocky Mountain resource plays where 'you find what you look for' and limit risk
The dream of creating a "global super-independent" didn't survive three years for EnCana, following its creation from the merger of PanCanadian Energy and Alberta Energy Co. It has been scrapped in f...