Business of Energy - August 2022 by Business in Calgary

OF ENERGY

AUGUST 2022

THE EVOLUTION OF ESG

CRAIG BRYKSA, PRESIDENT & CEO OF CRESCENT POINT ENERGY CORP. AND CHAIR OF CAPP, ON THE CHANGING IMPACT OF ESG ON CANADIAN ENERGY COMPANIES

A VISION I

OF SUSTAINABILITY

n 2004, Strike Group started out with a vision of being a sustainable, professionally led and profitable organization. It is incredible that 18 years later this vision has remained as relevant as ever. The founders, Ron Shannon and Stephen Smith, ensured that Strike made its mark on industry by staying true to their company’s values.

Within Strike Group there are several brands including Strike, Bob Dale Oilfield Services, Jedco Energy Services and Canadian Plains Energy Services. They provide support to a variety of industries including upstream oil & gas, midstream and transportation, petrochemical and downstream, power and utility, industrial and mining, and environmental and renewable.

Ron and Stephen first met while they were working together at Flint Canada Ltd. The two became fast friends during the time that Ron was president and CEO and Stephen was CFO. Ron started his career in 1956 and over the span of 20 years he went from digging ditches to leading the company. Stephen pursued post-secondary education, achieving his CPA, but found himself quickly advancing in management roles within the construction industry. After building a strong mentor-mentee bond, together they decided to start a construction company of their own. At the age of 70, and without any loss of tenacity, Ron partnered with Stephen in 2004 to form Strike Energy Services Inc., which later became Strike Group.

Stephen notes that Strike’s success comes from “building relationships with our customers, employees, and with the communities we serve.” They have proudly donated over $1.5 million back to the community, and are well known for an active commitment to supporting the local and Indigenous communities around their operations.

Strike’s first offices were in Whitecourt and High Level offering pipeline services, which was closely followed by an office in Edson, Alberta. Within three years, Strike was recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies with sales over $50 million, and by 2022 Strike had grown to have sales in excess of $400 million and employ more than 1,200 workers across Western Canada. Over the years Strike has grown immensely to offer a full suite of infrastructure construction and maintenance services across 24 locations in Western Canada. The company has five divisions that often integrate together on projects, these are Projects Group, Field Services, Industrial Services, Pipeline Services, and Electrical & Instrumentation.

Since the very beginning Strike has been fortunate to win many accolades, but within the last 12 months they have won some awards that the company is especially proud of. In 2021, Strike won the Indigenous Award of Distinction from Alberta Chambers of Commerce. Strike has been working diligently to educate their employees on reconciliation and to build respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples, businesses and communities. In 2022, Strike Group was the unanimously selected as the recipient of Alberta Construction Safety Associations (ACSA) “Trailblazer Award.” This award recognizes organizations that demonstrate a commitment to enhancing workplace safety and a dedication to promoting health and safety within the communities they serve. Most recently they were named as one of Canada’s Top Contractors by On-Site Magazine and won a Marketing Award of Distinction from the Alberta Chambers of Commerce. Strike is excited for the future! They note that there are many opportunities on the horizon within the traditional energy sectors they serve, and also a variety of projects popping up in the new energy markets. Over the last several

STRIKE’S VALUES: • Ensure every employee comes home safe. • Provide quality work at competitive prices. years, Strike has gained valuable experience from working on the following energy transition projects: the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL) which is the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project, fabrication and piping installation for carbon capture at a Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) facility, fabricating modules for biomass aviation fuel, electrical work for waste heat recovery expansion at a power plant, installation of skids and equipment for an electromagnetic heating pilot project, and the fabrication and pipeline construction of a Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) project in Saskatchewan. Strike Group is well-suited and ready to take on projects within the energy transition space. This year Strike released an inaugural Sustainability Report that formalized their commitment to sustainability and ESG efforts. Stephen says, “Strike has demonstrated leadership in many ESG initiatives, but we also recognize the need for continual improvement and are expanding our efforts to understanding and incorporating all aspects that impact our business, company culture and the environment.”

• Treat others as we would wish to be treated. • Strive to continually improve. • Reward people for their commitment, energy, enthusiasm and results.

• Demonstrate leadership, drive, creativity and initiative.

• Support the communities in which we live and work. • Minimize our impact on the environment.

A. #1300, 505 – 3rd Street SW Calgary, AB T2P 3E6 P. 403.232.8448 E. info@strikegroup.ca E. sales@strikegroup.ca www.strikegroup.ca

OF ENERGY VOL 4, ISSUE 4 | AUGUST 2022

PUBLISHERS

Profile: Strike Energy

by Rennay Craats

Common Sense Returns to Oil & Gas Capital Markets by David Yager

The Evolution of ESG by Melanie Darbyshire

Profile: Western Canada Spill Services by Rennay Craats

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EDITOR

Melanie Darbyshire

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Jessi Evetts jessi@businessincalgary.com

ADMINISTRATION/ ACCOUNTING Natalia Lopes natalia@businessincalgary.com

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS Melanie Darbyshire David Yager Cody Battershill Rennay Craats

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COVER 4 • Business of Energy • August 2022

Common Sense Returns to Oil & Gas Capital Markets | David Yager

COMMON SENSE RETURNS TO OIL & GAS CAPITAL MARKETS by David Yager

administrators of university endowment funds not to hold these investments. This soon spread to other pools of capital held by churches, charities and even governments.

Because of climate change, the smear campaign began years ago. Fossil fuels, not the 7.9 billion people who depend upon them, were creating the climate emergency. Solutions were essential. Carbon taxes. Pipeline obstruction. Emission caps. Subsidies for substitutes.

Another force that came into play was the concept of climate risk. Risk is a big factor in investment management. So professional money managers were persuaded to insist that public companies disclose their future financial risk to carbon taxes, rising water levels, or more extreme weather events.

Another way to demonstrate disdain for fossil fuels was capital markets. Cut off the money. If society and governments couldn’t control demand, then attack supply. Restrict access to debt, equity and even insurance. That would fix everything.

For fossil fuels the term coined was “stranded assets.” Should your shareholders not be made aware that decarbonization or public policy may render your resource reserves and delivery infrastructure worthless?

However, owning shares of fossil fuel producers has been, over time, a great investment. Take ExxonMobil, the company everybody loves to hate. Except its shareholders. A dollar invested in “XOM” in 1972 would be worth $134 today. This outperformed the inflation rate by a factor of 20. Corrected for inflation, one dollar in 1972 is equivalent to $6.57 in 2022.

The last big move was a derivate of Corporate Social Responsibility or Stakeholder Capitalism. It was called ESG, Environment, Social and Governance. Businesses had to do much more than make money. They had to become agents of social change and societal improvement.

wo years ago, when the war against fossil fuels was in full force, it was a contest to see how many ways the suppliers of 85 per cent of the world’s primary energy – coal, oil and natural gas – could be punished.

But people forgot about money. The western world was so wealthy that how it got that way no longer mattered. Early expressions of displeasure began on university campuses, the fossil fuel divestment movement. It was morally wrong to own oil stocks. Concerned students pressured the

The “E” was heavily focused on emissions from fossil fuels. Pools of capital like pension plans or mutual funds could no longer own shares or debt in your company if you did not demonstrate that you believed in climate change and were going to play your part in decarbonization. ESG is not new. It started when western businesses used various financial instruments

5 • Business of Energy • August 2022

David Yager | Common Sense Returns to Oil & Gas Capital Markets

to oppose apartheid in South Africa. This would later expand to “sin stocks” like gambling, tobacco and alcohol. Guns and armaments were added to the list. As climate change became the public policy issue, financial institutions came under attack for continuing to finance fossil fuel producers. A few years ago, it was popular for activists and leftwing politicians to publicly brand oil company CEOs as climate criminals. Who would dare invest in the companies that were destroying the planet? Big European banks were the first movers. They proudly announced they would no longer fund new coal mines and later oil sands projects. This was followed by pension plans, mutual funds and private equity firms. Smaller oil and gas producers began to find their access to capital severely restricted.

But what made avoiding fossil fuels simpler was low commodity prices. What began in late 2014 was seven years in the financial wilderness. In year six, 2020, things got even worse when the pandemic lockdown ground the economy to a halt. Reinvestment in new supplies plunged because of low prices and strong investor pressure. Trashing oil and gas investments was easy. Measured by free cash flow and credit worthiness, many producers were dogs by any measure. Historically low gas prices forced many Canadian companies into insolvency. ESG investors interpreted a severe price cycle as a long-term trend. Meanwhile, everything else did great. Central banks in the western world introduced stimulative monetary policies to combat the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. But even when the economy recovered, the debt party never stopped.

6 • Business of Energy • August 2022

The oil price collapse gave every other industry and consumer in the world a tremendous financial boost through lower input costs and increased disposable income for non-energy purchases. The new tech economy was seen as the place to invest, as was renewable energy. Even companies without cash flow that were perceived to be part of the future economy were awarded high valuations.

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Historically low interest and inflation rates lit a fire under world equity markets. Debt was available at the most attractive terms in decades, if not history. As it pertained to fossil fuels, ESG investing enjoyed a one-time set of circumstances that will likely never be duplicated. But because of economic conditions and low commodity prices, restricting capital to the fossil fuel sector would have happened anyway. Banks and investment funds didn’t need a press release and a self-awarded boy scout badge to make that decision.

Everything else in the economy was growing, especially the ones that checked all the acceptable ESG boxes. Capital inflows into ESG funds and investment vehicles rose year after year through 2021. But as the world began to emerge from the pandemic lockdown and attempt to return to normal, a lot of the key economic drivers were starkly different. While the public debate was dominated by all the grand plans and programs to rebuild the economy differently as it emerged from the lockdowns, things hadn’t actually changed very much. Except a lot of people had a lot more cash thanks to unprecedented levels of government-funded liquidity during the pandemic and nowhere to spend their money. It turns out shutting down supply chains was easier than restarting them. As the economy reopened, oil demand returned and prices began to rise. The great inventory surpluses of previous years were shrinking, the

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7 • Business of Energy • December 7 • Business 2020 of Energy • August 2022

David Yager | Common Sense Returns to Oil & Gas Capital Markets

result of six years of reduced investment with no commensurate reduction in demand beyond government-mandated restrictions. Transportation fuels still came from oil. WTI closed 2019 at US$61.14. A year later it was only US$48.35. But 2021 ended with the highest oil prices in seven years. Rumors of oil demise were greatly exaggerated. In the summer of 2021, the wind quit blowing in Europe. Customers learned the hard way that there wasn’t much natural gas available. That’s what European governments thought voters wanted as they blocked development and refused to enter into long-term supply contracts. After all, hydrocarbons had no future. Gas and electricity prices spiked to previously unimagined levels as the reliability of renewables came into serious question. Everything got worse when Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Inflation, already rising, rose further. Governments had borrowed so much money during the pandemic that their ability to continue to stimulate the economy like they had from 2009 to 2019 was gone. Rising interest rates made borrowing even more money unwise. Suddenly the “E” in ESG was less important that before. Instead, the “S” for Social rose to the top as the new imperative was to punish Russia for its military ambitions. This also exposed the vulnerability of internal energy supply chains. Food prices jumped, another huge social challenge. As this article is written, for most people ESG should stand for Energy, Security and Groceries. Because that’s what people really needs in mid-2022. The turnaround by governments that won elections by promising to wean the world off of fossil fuels has been breathtaking. Coal fired generating plants are returning to service. Western governments are asking for more oil from anywhere but Russia. This includes former

bad actors like Venezuela and Iran. Even the UK is considering undoing its earlier ban on hydraulic fracturing to develop what appears to be significant reserves of shale gas. In reality, capital markets do not lead public policy and opinion. They follow. So finance managers are returning their focus on what they are supposed to do, which is make money. As the world changed since late 2021, the disciples of avoiding fossil fuels changed with it. For the first half of 2022, the S&P 500 had its worst performance in decades. The only bright spot was energy. For clarity, make that oil and gas. The ESG investment crusade where capital markets and the finance industry were going to fix the world in a way that consumers and policy makers could not is over. It was a phenomenon of different times and different priorities. Oil and gas producers have learned from this experience that investors expect more. No problem. With higher commodity prices and cash flow, the industry has the funds to do better on reducing emissions than it ever has before. But investment professionals that were so eager to virtue signal about their climate commitments stand reminded that their primary obligation is to earn returns for their clients. Fossil fuels exist and succeed because they are the most plentiful and economically-viable sources of the energy the world cannot live without. Until replacement technologies catch up, it will B remain that way. OE

David Yager is a Calgary oil service executive, energy policy analyst, writer and author. He is president and CEO of Winterhawk Casing Expansion, a new wellbore and methane remediation technology company. His 2019 book From Miracle to Menace - Alberta, A Carbon Story is available at www.miracletomenace.ca.

8 • Business of Energy • August 2022

The Evolution of ESG | Cover

THE EVOLUTION OF ESG

CRAIG BRYKSA, PRESIDENT & CEO OF CRESCENT POINT ENERGY CORP. AND CHAIR OF CAPP, ON THE CHANGING IMPACT OF ESG ON CANADIAN ENERGY COMPANIES

by Melanie Darbyshire

nvironmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) metrics have, over the last five to six years, altered the way many investors approach investing. Considered measures of a corporation’s sustainability and ethical impact, these nonfinancial factors have become an increasingly important part of the analysis of a company’s material risks and growth opportunities. To some investors, a strong ESG undertaking is a prerequisite for engagement. The Canadian energy industry’s commitment to ESG – notwithstanding what some in the green movement might say – has been robust for years, particularly on the environmental. Now, with a global energy crisis underway and the price of gas at the pumps reaching record highs, and with most companies having tightened their belts and balance sheets over the last halfdecade, Canadian energy companies are better positioned than ever to supply the world with the energy it needs. “When you look at us on an ESG-friendly barrel, I don’t think there’s a friendlier barrel in the sector as a whole, globally,” says Craig Bryksa, president and CEO, Crescent Point Energy Corp., and chair of the CAPP Board of Governors. “Every one of these companies takes ESG very seriously. Traditionally the focus has been on the environmental side, but recently with the conflict in Ukraine and the need for energy security, the social and governance factors have been brought to the forefront. And again, our sector leads the world there too.” Many energy companies publish sustainability reports to highlight their commitment to the environment. These include net zero targets and advanced emissions intensity reduction targets to get them there in the near and longer term, as well as initiatives to reduce freshwater usage.

Crescent Point’s entry into the Kaybob Duvernay has further enhanced its ESG performance.

The company’s southeast Saskatchewan assets remain one of its largest operating areas.

Crescent Point employees on site at a production facility.

9 • Business of Energy • August 2022

The Evolution of ESG

Cover | The Evolution of ESG

“North American energy companies are held to a higher standard,” Bryksa continue. “That’s driven not only by the management teams within those organizations but also the stakeholders that we’re engaged with, whether that’s the communities we operate in, our employees or our shareholders. Our standards are extremely high.” With energy security becoming a dominant issue, Bryksa is confidant his sector is ideally situated to step up and display, not only to Canadian governments but to those in Washington, D.C., how Canadian companies should be the supplier of choice for North America. “Natural gas prices in Europe have been reaching record levels over the last six months,” he points out. “So I think in the near term, and probably for the long term, the shift on ESG has been towards energy security.” He notes that in the past, when the commodity was in a downward environment and nonenergy related investments were highly profitable, it was easy to find reasons to not invest in energy, with ESG being one those arguments. Now, with a supply scarcity, the world is beginning to understand that it needs oil and gas as part of the energy stack, not only now, but for the foreseeable long-term future. “And we’re starting to see more investors come back,” he adds. “Certainly now I can tell you that some of those funds that wouldn’t have taken meetings with you before, are now willing to engage. There’s an understanding that whether you want to call it a transition, a transformation, or a diversification within the entire energy stack, it’s going to take a long period of time. And we need to do it in a very disciplined manner, so as not to disrupt the energy system globally.” He points out that otherwise we end up with skyrocketing electricity and gas prices, as has been experienced in Europe of late. Bryksa does not discount renewable energy sources – wind, solar, hydro, nuclear – and agrees they will be a component of the energy mix going forward: “But the size and scale are not there to meet the needs of global energy demands.” The limitations of wind, solar and battery capacity, he says, are now better understood by consumers: “You’re seeing brownouts occurring in the U.S. because of too much reliance on those types of energy. So that’s where oil and gas can support in the background. So yes, they will be a part of the energy mix, but oil and gas will continue to be a large part of it as well.” Ultimately, the future of energy is a diversification, not a transition away from oil and gas. “You’re seeing, right now, how important oil and gas are to the energy mix, and how long of a time period it will be to move off of them,” Bryksa says. “I certainly believe that diversification is the future and you’re going to need a little bit of every component to meet the energy demands of a growing world.” “We are so lucky to have the abundance of resources that we have,” Bryksa says. “We can help the rest of the world with its climate and emissions initiatives. With the growth of our LNG sector, we can move gas to Europe and Asia. Take some of those coal fired power plants offline and have them combusted through natural gas, which is much cleaner and more efficient than coal.” Indeed, Canadian energy companies are poised for good times ahead. After weathering the last six years of depressed prices and demand, the surviving companies are healthier than they’ve ever been. “I don’t think the sector’s ever been healthier,” Bryksa acknowledges happily. “You’ve got companies whose balance sheets are rapidly improving. The sector as a whole, over the next 12 months, can literally be debt free.”

10 • Business of Energy • August 2022

Drone view of a 4-well pad in Kaybob Duvernay.

“It’s certainly exciting,” he continues. “We’re talking about pristine balance sheets. We’re talking about returning capital to shareholders and some positive share price performance for all of us here in these eight blocks that operate in Calgary.” Indeed, ARC Financial Reports have forecasted the sector as a whole to have its best year in history. “And with that comes roughly $30 billion in royalties alone,” Bryksa says, “to be paid out to governments across Canada. So that certainly helps the entire country. The outlook for our sector has drastically improved over the last couple years and we’re poised for a promising run as we move forward.” He lauds the ‘best and brightest’ working within the sector, as well as the technologies that have been deployed over time. “We’ll continue to drive that technology, whether it’s carbon capture and utilization in storage, advanced techniques in horizontal drilling or multi-fracture technology.” At Crescent Point, technology has been a huge advantage, in particular, the automation of its fields. “Our operations technology platform has digitized our entire field,” Bryksa explains. “And that has had a net benefit not only on safety and emissions reductions, but on the cost structure as well.”

Craig on a recent field tour earlier this year.

A North American producer, Crescent Point produces about 133,000 to 137,000 BOE per day and will spend somewhere between $875 and $900 million this year. Operations and executions are strong, as is its safety performance. Its commitment to ESG is unwavering. “We put out an emissions intensity reduction target using 2017 as a baseline,” Bryksa says. “And by 2025, we wanted to reduce our emissions intensity by 50 per cent. I’m happy to tell you we’ve hit that number already. We have aggressive near-term targets on ESG, which you see throughout the sector.” “ESG is not a fad,” he concludes, “it is something that underpins every decision we make within the organization, and it speaks to the risk management practices of an organization. We tie everything back to that and believe that by being leaders in ESG, it makes the company stronger as a whole. Across our sector, some of the companies with the best ESG performance are some of the best performing companies. B That’s no coincidence.” OE

11 • Business of Energy • August 2022

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INDUSTRY COLLABORATION BUILT 50-YEAR SPILL PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM by Rennay Craats

n oil spill off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1970 spurred the Canadian energy industry into action. Following the event, the oil and gas industry and its regulator identified a need for oil spill contingency plans and, in Alberta, the first oil spill cooperatives soon followed. It started with multiple independently managed spill coops operating under an advisory committee, and in 1996 the committee and all the cooperatives amalgamated into Western Canadian Spill Services to create a cohesively managed service. “WCSS became the central hub for industry to rely upon for equipment maintenance and management, spill response training with that equipment and an oil spill-specific response plan that is supplemental to all company ERPs,” says Shannon Jarrell, communications and training manager for WCSS. This organization allows members to access a cache of equipment stored in 36 strategic locations throughout the nine co-ops in Alberta, north-east British Columbia and westcentral Saskatchewan. It has grown from an organization of seconded employees from Petroleum Industry Training Services (PITS), the predecessor organization of Enform now Energy

Jeff Murray, Leona Boisselle, Spencer Lofthaug, Shiela Wooldridge, Shannon Jarrell, Amy Grenier and Scott Dionne. Photo by Riverwood Photography

Safety Canada until the organization separated and became independently managed in 2017. Today WCSS serves around 500 member companies, from mom-and-pop businesses to large producers and pipeline companies, with guidance from a board of directors comprised of representatives of member organizations, the cooperatives and the shareholders (CAPP, Enbridge and Trans Mountain). It is owned and directed by the energy industry for the betterment of the industry, and WCSS exists to support the industry in its commitment to be stewards of the environment. “It’s all about industry collaboration. This is one of those stories where industry comes together and rather than protecting their information because they’re competing with one another, they’re actually sharing information. We’re all in this together and as an industry, we all get painted with the same brush when an incident happens,” says Scott Dionne, president and COO of WCSS. But WCSS involvement goes beyond just incidents; members have requested to have equipment on standby if they are working close to water as a precaution, and it has provided

And ensuring the right blend of training on specialized equipment is the critical piece. WCSS has focused intently on growing the training programs, much of which includes training on specifically designed boats to effectively manage spills to water. The organization’s progressive programming became especially important after COVID changed the way many companies operated. While deploying equipment wouldn’t be affected by restrictions and remote work, getting information and hands-on training to member representatives would be. Supplementing the 50 to 60 annual training events WCSS hosts, the organization has now introduced more e-learning opportunities, which not only gets information into people’s hands but also broadens the audience receiving the information. “It’s kind of big for a 50-year-old company. Though there hasn’t been a need for radical change, we’ve adapted incrementally in a way that is not shocking to our member companies, and industry has supported us every step of the way to help create this highly effective interdependency,” says Jarrell.

equipment to RCMP search and rescue efforts and community flooding situations as well. “It’s word of mouth that gets us out to those other emergency responders and events, because our volunteers are so invested in helping not only from an oil spill point of view but a community relations point of view too,” says Spencer Lofthaug, WCSS operations manager. With a staff of only seven in the office supported by long-standing contractors, WCSS relies on its stable of about 100 dedicated industry volunteers to help the organization fulfil its mandate of providing cost-effective, integrated emergency response support to members. Volunteers, many of them long-time participants, serve on committees and provide input on the direction of the cooperative, whether that is researching equipment or tactics through the field improvement program or specific training surrounding mobilizing or response strategies.

WCSS’s success has hinged on collaboration and as it becomes increasingly important for the energy industry to work together to show that Canada is the most responsible producer and shipper of energy products in the world, Western Canadian Spill Services will continue to facilitate the delivery of leading-edge equipment, knowledge and training so its members can continue to lead the world in this area.

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