Oil and Gas industry looking to fill 9,500 jobs by 2015: report

(Marketwire) Canada's oil and gas industry will need to fill a minimum of 9,500 jobs by 2015, according to a report to be released May 29, 2012, by the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada. The report, Canada's Oil and Gas Labour Market Outlook to 2015, states that between now and 2015, Canada's oil and gas industry is at risk of losing about three per cent of its workforce overall, because of persistently low natural gas prices. However, two primary factors - growth in certain operations and age-related attrition - will offset most job losses and in fact contribute to industry hiring needs.

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Ontario wants feds to help develop chromite mine in Ring of Fire

Chromite, source of the metal chromium, used in manufacturing stainless steel. Ontario's Ring of Fire contains one of the world's largest depostits of the mineral, and the province wants the Ottawa to help finance development of the region to extract and process it.

A major new mining development in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire needs help from the federal government to proceed, according to Ontario’s premier, Dalton McGuinty. McGuinty met privately with Stephen Harper two days ago to discuss the project, which would develop large deposits of chromite, used in the production of stainless steel.

McGuinty told the prime minister that the project is too big for the province to finance on its own, with the need to build an access road, estimated to cost in the area of $600 million, to extend electricity transmission and to invest in skills and training for First Nations communities. The premier said he invited the prime minister “to give some thought as to how we might partner together” to take advantage of this new opportunity “in our backyard.”

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Bearings plant closure bad news for hard-hit St. Thomas, Ontario

The Timken Company, which has made roller bearings for heavy trucks and industrial applications in its St. Thomas, Ontario plant since 1946, is closing next year. Approximately 190 workers will lose their jobs. The company is headquartered in Canton, Ohio, and production will move to the company’s operations in Ohio and the Carolinas.

The reason given for the shutdown is changes in the company’s customer base, which have led to the plant’s operating at less than 20 per cent capacity in recent times. Lower demand for the type of bearing made at the St. Thomas plant means that the products can be made more cost-effectively at other facilities, according to the company.

“With similar capacity available at plants located closer to customers, this is a necessary step to improve our service and competitiveness across North America,” said Timken's director of global manufacturing, Richard Boyer.

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CANDU workers at SNC-Lavalin accuse company of bullying

The Society of Professional Engineers and Associates (SPEA) has accused SNC-Lavalin’s Candu Energy division of behaving as if Canada were a “third-world country” by unilaterally stripping employees of working conditions and imposing new conditions on its nuclear workforce. SPEA says the company is trying to “bully” members into working under the worst terms of employment in the nuclear industry.

“This tactic may work in Libya but not in Canada,” said Peter White, president of SPEA.

SPEA represents the designers and support workers for CANDU reactors in Canada and abroad. Formerly Atomic Energy of Canada Limited until it was sold to SNC-Lavalin, the nuclear division of SNC-Lavalin will lose more highly skilled workers, according to SPEA. Already, more than 200 employees have left the company, White said in a statement, and more will go.

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Energy strategy needed for Canada: report

Canada's production of oil is coming close to exceeding capacity to transport it, according to PwC report.

A report on the oil and gas industry in Canada from PwC says that the country needs a strategy to properly develop its energy reserves and to increase its stature as a global energy power.

Policy challenges facing the energy sector range from environmental concerns to worries from the United States that it could lose one of its most secure and reliable sources of energy to Asian markets.

The report also notes that more discussion needs to take place about what Canada should do with its ever-expanding reserves of crude oil, refined products and liquefied natural gas (LNG) coming on stream over the next few years.

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P&WC SEA to provide MRO for new Indonesian airline

Pratt & Whitney Canada SEA, the Singapore-based provider of repair and overhaul services for aircraft engines and auxiliary power units, has signed a five-year Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) agreement with Pacific Royale Airways, a Jakarta, Indonesia-based airline. 

Pacific Royale Airways recently began operations with a 10-aircraft fleet. The PW127B engines which power half of its fleet, five Fokker 50 (High Performance) aircraft, will be covered under the MRO agreement with P&WC SEA. The new airline will serve the Indonesian market where air travel among the nation's islands is in demand.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,500 islands, some 900 of which are inhabited. The country has a population of 238 million people and is the fourth most populous nation in the world. The unique geography and large population present an excellent opportunity for regional turboprop aircraft. 

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Keystone XL pipeline would increase cost of gas: report

New report claims the Keystone XL will divert crude oil from Midwestern refineries to Texas, where it will be refined and exported as diesel, driving gas prices higher.

Contrary to what proponents have been saying all along, construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas will drive gasoline prices higher. This is the conclusion of a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Forest Ethics Advocacy. According to their analysis, the Alberta oil sands crude that’s refined in Texas will be exported as diesel, reducing the supply of regular gasoline available to consumers in North America, and driving prices higher.

“The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is not a solution to rising gas prices,” according to today’s report. “By decreasing the supply of gasoline in the United States and increasing the price refineries pay to produce it, Keystone XL will add to America’s pain at the pump.”

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Oilsands, magnetic bearings lead to science prizes for students

Oilsands remediation and hybrid bearings research earn two Calgary high school students national innovation recognition

A healthy dandelion sprouting through road pavement triggered curiosity in Kelcie Miller-Anderson about the potential of a different approach to remediating tailings ponds of Canada's oilsands industry.

And a penchant for improving on existing technology to provide greater benefits for society led 16 year-old Zeyu Liu to develop a hybrid magnetic bearing system that could broaden bearing applications to consumer products.

Both Calgary students earned national recognition for innovation from the Manning Awards at the fifty-first Canada-Wide Science Fair this week at the University of Prince Edward Island.

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Canada's forestry sector working to reinvent itself

Forest product exports to China went from $32 million a decade ago to $4 billion in 2011. New markets and new products will drive the industry's growth over next decade.

Canada’s forestry industry says it hopes to add 60,000 new jobs by 2020, and will generate $20 billion in economic activity in the next eight years through exports to emerging markets and to a recovering United States market.

The head of the Forest Products Association of Canada, Catherine Cobden, said that they were launching Vision 2020 as a challenge to the sector and governments, with the goal of generating new revenues and growing markets. The industry was hard hit by the downturn in the US housing market and is now emerging and “transforming itself” by improving productivity and competitiveness. Finding ways to produce new, innovative products from wood is the challenge it now sets itself.

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Manufacturing, wholesale sales both higher in March: StatsCan

Shipments of Canadian manufactured goods increased in March by 1.9 per cent to $49.7 billion, the largest gain since September 2011. Petroleum and coal products led the increase, Statistics Canada reports, with sales hitting $7.5 billion, an increase of 4.5 per cent, the highest in nearly four years. The increase was largely the result of higher sales volumes at oil refineries.

Thirteen of the twenty-one industries tracked showed increases in March, with strongest gains in Ontario, New Brunswick and Quebec. In Ontario, growth of 1.9 per cent, to $22.4 billion, was widespread, reflecting increases in petroleum products, motor vehicle assembly, chemical and computer and electronic product industries.

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