The Canadian energy industry is currently facing a host of significant challenges both global and regional, from geopolitical to geotechnical with complex demand, inventory and supply issues driving recent rapidly depressed commodity prices – this all built on a very high cost structure. There are many companies with broken balance sheets carrying excessive debt leaving them no access to capital. Some of these companies hold significant resource assets that are in the early-cycle development stage – but they face time constraints and these assets need immediate and ongoing capital to be captured and elevated to mid-cycle development.
The back-drop is that technology has opened up new world class reservoirs in the Western Canadian Sedimentary basin. Crude oil and liquids commodity prices were elevated over the past few years allowing many of these large projects to be identified and provided the setting for the greatest mineral land rush since Klondike gold was initially discovered. The rush to revenue has been far more challenging than forecast. These immense resources require effective execution and massive amounts of capital and time. Small companies with past baggage were not equipped and medium to large companies are strained under budget busting capital and development plans beyond their wildest expectations. So close and yet so far.