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2018
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LEXPERT 13
Christian, Jeff Lawson Lundell LLP
(604) 631-9115 jchristian@lawsonlundell.com
Mr. Christian is a litigation partner at Lawson Lundell LLP, with a practice
focused on energy and regulated utilities. He represents utilities, power mar-
keters and consumer groups in proceedings before administrative tribunals
such as the BCUC, the AUC and the NEB. He was named Energy Regulatory
Law Lawyer of the Year in Vancouver for 2013 by Best Lawyers in Canada.
Chatwin, Keith R. Stikeman Elliott LLP
(403) 266-9088 kchatwin@stikeman.com
Mr. Chatwin is a partner in the Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions
Groups with an emphasis on Energy transactions. His practice involves a
broad array of energy matters and securities and general corporate transac-
tions, ranging from public and private debt and equity financing to mergers
& acquisitions, corporate restructuring and recapitalizations and shareholder
activism and defence.
Chamberlain, Adam Gowling WLG
(416) 369-7223 adam.chamberlain@gowlingwlg.com
Mr. Chamberlain is a Certified Specialist in Environmental Law. He focuses
on natural resources and infrastructure/project development with significant
experience in Northern Canada. He is involved extensively in relationships
between Indigenous communities, governments and project proponents,
including on all manner of developments.
Carson, Lorne W. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
(403) 260-7083 lcarson@osler.com
Mr. Carson, also an engineer, focuses on domestic and international
project development and finance in the oil & gas, electrical power,
renewables and other infrastructure sectors. His experience embraces
multi-party and joint ventures.
Carrière, Mathilde Dentons Canada LLP
(514) 878-5823 mathilde.carriere@dentons.com
Ms. Carrière leads the corporate and commercial law practice of Dentons'
Montréal office. She is also one of the leaders of the office's infrastructure
and public private partnership practice and of the Construction group
in Canada. She focuses her practice on large scale construction
and infrastructure projects but has also dealt extensively with M&A
and venture capital investments.
Carleton, John P. Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
(403) 267-9406 John.Carleton@nortonrosefulbright.com
Mr. Carleton has practised energy law since 1983. He has represented
merchant energy traders, developers, vendors, purchasers, lenders and
underwriters in the procurement, project development, sale and financing of
coal fired, cogeneration, biomass, wind power and solar production facilities
and the debt and capital markets financings of such projects.
e trend right now is for banks to issue so-
called forbearance agreements delaying fore-
closure, he says. e agreements essentially say:
"'We'll give you more time to get yourselves in or-
der and we'll wish, hope, and pray that commod-
ity prices turn around or something else happens
to enable you to continue.' As oil and gas counsel,
we're very good these days at doing these."
Quesnel says while the banks aren't foreclosing,
they aren't lending to fund growth either. "at's
contributed to a fair amount of paralysis by com-
panies who are thinking, 'What can I do, and how
can I get through this?'"
Some producers have found alternate ways of
raising capital. ey include selling mid-stream
infrastructure, such as plants and internal pipe-
lines, with leasebacks allowing them to continue
using the facilities, or selling royalty streams — an
advance portion of their production. Some are
even selling royalty streams in non-producing
properties in the hopes the cash upfront will be
enough to bring a field online.
Canada's oil sands are the third-largest oil re-
serves on the planet but the oil is also among the
most expensive to produce. It's hard to see, short
of a sharp and sustained increase in prices and
continued innovation bringing costs down sub-
stantially, how that will change.
Like everyone else, Canadian producers have
been squeezed by the drop in the price of crude
oil and natural gas, even though both have inched
up this year. And oil sands producers are squeezed
by the brutal transportation bottleneck in pipe-
line and rail, which has led some to leave product
in the ground.
With 99 per cent of Canadian exports going
to the United States, they're further squeezed on
price by their largest customer — which is buying
less and less.
"e US has basically exploded in terms of
shale oil and gas and various Texas operations
where they don't need to import nearly as much,"
says Janice Buckingham, chair of the oil & gas
practice and co-lead of the energy practice at Os-
ler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. "ey can buy our
product if they need some excess to carry them
over, but they're not the big importer of Canadian
oil and gas they used to be."
e most serious squeeze Canadian oil sands
companies face is the lack of a pipeline leading
directly to Pacific tidewaters, which would allow
Canadian crude to be loaded directly on to ships
to be transported to energy-hungry countries in
Asia. "One of the biggest challenges the industry
has been facing is the lack of takeaway capacity,"
says Buckingham. "We've got lots of production
but we can't get it to markets where we can get
competitive pricing.
"e transportation difficulties have cast a wide
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