Oilweek — Wheeling and dealing across Canadian industry heated up somewhat this past summer, a specialist in the mergers and acquisition (M&A) arena says, and while the global recession-and in particular the evaporation of private equity-blunted overall activity in 2009, 2010 could be a much different animal.

Oilweek — The real significance of “cash is king” is being played out in the boardrooms of companies across the spectrum of the energy sector.

Oilsands Review — The oilsands slowdown that started in fall 2008 and stretched long into 2009 left hundreds of thousands of barrels of planned production in limbo—scheduled start-up dates fast became “TBDs,” work dried up, and people lost their jobs. But many are hopeful as the industry enters 2010, expecting a number of projects to come off the shelves and associated work to come back.

Oilsands Review — By the end of 2008, the next year was looking anything but positive for the oilsands industry—and it wasn’t. Billions of dollars worth of projects were put on hold and thousands of people were laid off in the midst of a growing storm of environmental criticism.

Oilweek — Last year´s stock market collapse gutted many retirement savings plans and investment portfolios under the care of professionals.

Oilweek — Global recession, drilling slump, downsized, right-sized…laid off. Losing a job can be a shock, says Jim Fries, senior consultant at Calgary-based integrated human resource and business consulting firm Cenera. Even with frequent reports of layoffs in the news, it´s different when it hits home.

Oilweek — Nothing really prepares an employee for a layoff. Even when it seems like a distinct possibility, a person tends to cling to hope or, at least, to the most likely scenarios formulated to deal with the uncertainty.

New Technology Magazine — Despite the current drilling downturn in Canada, an Edmonton-based company that specializes in providing equipment used in the cementing of wells has more than doubled revenue in three years — thanks to international expansion.

Oilsands Review — It’s not a forecast, because forecasting can lock one into assuming the future will unfold based on the assumed certainties of the present. But nothing is certain—especially in the oil industry. So when considering what may happen as the oilsands industry emerges from the so-called “Great Recession,” IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) has created scenarios designed to encourage stakeholders, policy-makers, and industry to “think as broadly as possible to understand the forces of change and how to adapt to them.”

Oilweek — By most accounts, this oil and gas industry slump is worse than that of 1980 to ‘81. Heavily gas-weighted producers are taking a tag-team beating from an economic collapse that has gutted demand and a step-change in technology that has flooded the continent with shale gas.

Oilsands Review — In human resources news, until fall of 2008 it seemed all one could talk about was labour shortage in the province of Alberta, especially in its booming oilsands industry.

New Technology Magazine — The oil and gas sector in Canada has more than 70% of its workers in the field. Given the size of this remote workforce, companies are looking for ways to improve field productivity by the innovative use of information and communications technologies.

New Technology Magazine — Despite being hit by lower commodity prices and clobbered by correspondingly weaker revenues, sending companies into cost-cutting mode, the importance of research and development and its implications on the industry's future health and prosperity seem to still be resonating in oil and gas circles.

Oilweek — Recession, what recession? A fortunate few, 19 per cent to be exact, according to a new survey of oil and gas senior executives, considered their companies immune to the impacts of the global recession and still “very successful.” Another 32 per cent of the participants in this Robert Gordon University Aberdeen study said their companies are just “moderately affected.”

Oilsands Review — There’s no doubt about it—people in the oilsands industry have been losing their jobs as production projects slated to come down the pipeline have been stalled and even shelved.