CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – The oil-rich Canadian province of Alberta is set to backtrack on a controversial royalty regime once welcomed by the public but reviled by the energy industry as it looks to boost investment in its oil and gas reserves.

The Progressive Conservative government’s planned Competitiveness Review, to be released on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. local time, is likely to lower the province’s take from conventional oil and gas production and bring royalty terms closer to the lower rates offered in neighboring provinces of Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

LONDON/CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Britain’s
biggest oilfield, Buzzard, has been brought back to full
production after a technical fault cut output by three-quarters,
reducing supplies of the North Sea benchmark crude oil.

Nexen Inc <NXY.TO>, operator of Buzzard, said in a statement
it resumed pumping at the normal rate of between 200,000 and
220,000 barrels per day (bpd) after maintenance issues cut
output for more than a week.

CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 23 (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp
<TRP.TO> posted a fourth-quarter profit that was up 38 percent
but missed market expectations as it spent more to advance its
Alaska pipeline project and power prices dropped.

TransCanada, the country’s biggest pipeline and power
company, also raised its quarterly dividend by 5.3 percent to
40 Canadian cents from 38 Canadian cents, starting from the
current quarter.

CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 11 (Reuters) – EnCana Corp <ECA.TO>
and its oil sands and refining spinoff Cenovus Energy Inc
<CVE.TO> posted their first earnings as separate companies on
Thursday, with the pair reporting lower profits but promising
substantial production gains.

Both EnCana and Cenovus said their net income fell because
of lower oil and gas prices and the costs of the corporate
split. However shares in both companies rose as Cenovus said
output from its oil sands operations was rising, while EnCana,
the biggest Canadian natural gas producer, produced a better
than expected profit and lowered costs.

CALGARY/TORONTO (Reuters) – Suncor Energy Inc <SU.TO>, Canada’s largest energy company, reported a much weaker than expected quarterly profit on Tuesday as it works to speed the integration of the company following last year’s C$22.7 billion ($21.4 billion) purchase of rival Petro-Canada.

Suncor Chief Executive Rick George said the company will spend much of the year cleaning up its operations following the Petro-Canada acquisition, the largest ever by a Canadian oil and gas company, and completing an asset-sale program that has already raised C$517 million.

CALGARY/ANCHORAGE (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp <TRP.TO> and partner Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N> boosted their cost estimates for a planned line to carry Alaska gas to southern markets by up to 58 percent on Friday, as the two ready plans to sign up shippers for the massive project.

The companies said the cost of the 1,700 mile pipeline carrying at least 4.5 billion cubic feet of gas daily from Alaska’s North Slope to Alberta will range between $32 billion and $41 billion, up from a previous $26 billion forecast.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canadian energy companies that concentrate on producing oil should report strong quarterly results in the coming weeks, while natural gas producers and refiners will struggle.

After a year of reporting weak recessionary profits in comparison with year-before periods during which oil prices were climbing to records, many Canadian oil companies are likely to deliver improved earnings as the economy recovers.

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 19 (Reuters) – ConocoPhillips <COP.N>
and Total SA <TOTF.PA> launched a massive expansion of their
Canadian oil sands joint venture on Tuesday, with plans to
boost production from the Surmont project to 110,000 barrels
per day, four times the current rate.

Construction at Surmont, which currently produces about
27,000 barrels a day, will begin this year and is slated to be
complete by 2015. The partners did not disclose the cost of the
project.

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Talisman Energy Inc
<TLM.TO>, Canada’s No. 3 independent oil explorer, said on
Monday it will accelerate its switch to an unconventional gas
producer this year, raising 2010 spending by 10 percent as it
boosts drilling on its shale gas holdings.

The company, which has spent the past two years selling
non-core assets around the world to concentrate on its
longer-term prospects in Canada, the United States, the North
Sea and Southeast Asia, expects to spend C$5.2 billion ($5.04
billion) on its business this year, up about one-tenth from its
2009 budget.

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc
<RDSa.L> said on Thursday it will transform its Montreal East
refinery into a fuel terminal, making the 130,000 barrel a day
plant the latest in North America to be closed because of weak
returns.

Shell, which has operated a refinery at the site for 76
years, said the plant did not fit into its long-term strategy.
It opted to close the facility — likely by year’s end — after
a seven-month search for a buyer came up dry. It will import
fuel for its customers when production ends.