14 LEXPERT
|
2018
|
WWW.LEXPERT.CA
Cruickshank, QC, Richard H. Dentons Canada LLP
(780) 423-7270 rick.cruickshank@dentons.com
Mr. Cruickshank's practice, primarily focused in the tax area, includes provid-
ing strategic counsel to a number of corporations and institutions, and their
respective boards and executives. His areas of expertise include estate and
succession planning, charities/not-for-profits tax, M&A, pensions, executive
and employee stock-based compensation plans, business structures,
and wealth management.
Corley, Richard F.D. Goodmans LLP
(416) 597-4197 rcorley@goodmans.ca
Mr. Corley leads Goodmans' Cleantech Group and Outsourcing Group. He
has over 25 years of experience assisting clients to successfully complete
complex M&A and commercial transactions in renewables, cleantech and
IT. He was named a member of Canada's 2016 Clean50, is a director of the
Canadian Institute for Exponential Growth, and is a member of the Canadian
Solar Industries Association.
Corbett, Leland P. Stikeman Elliott LLP
(403) 266-9046 lcorbett@stikeman.com
Mr. Corbett is Managing Partner of Stikeman Elliott's Calgary office. His
practice focuses on corporate-commercial matters where he acts in public
and private capital markets transactions, including corporate and investment
banking, share and asset acquisitions and dispositions, securities transac-
tions and other M&A activity. He also acts in corporate reorganizations,
restructurings and spin-offs.
Cole, Avril Gowling WLG
(416) 369-4605 avril.cole@gowlingwlg.com
Ms. Cole is a partner in the Mining and Energy Groups of Gowling WLG and is
co-lead of the firm's Africa Group. She advises Canadian and international cli-
ents on commercial transactions in the natural resource and energy sectors,
and also provides legal and strategic advice on all aspects of project devel-
opment and related commercial natural resource and energy agreements.
Clark, Heidi Dentons Canada LLP
(416) 863-4626 heidi.clark@dentons.com
Ms. Clark is a partner and department manager in the Toronto office of the
Firm's Banking and Finance group. Her practice includes advising domestic
and foreign financial institutions, institutional investors, corporate and insti-
tutional borrowers, and governments on a broad range of complex
and structured financing transactions.
Clare, James Bennett Jones LLP
(416) 777-6245 clarej@bennettjones.com
Mr. Clare is a corporate and securities lawyer with a focus on the mining
sector, and an emphasis on domestic and cross-border corporate finance
and M&A. He also represents issuers and underwriters on general corporate
and securities law matters.
LEXPERT-RANKED LAWYERS
shadow over the industry."
It all contributes to e Big Squeeze: the price
differential. A barrel of Canadian WCS, used to
benchmark Western Canadian oil, is about $25
more expensive than a barrel of WTI, Texas light
sweet, used to benchmark US oil prices.
e US imports 3.73 million barrels a day, ac-
cording to the US Energy Information Admin-
istration. Canadian producers, competing with
Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela and Iraq to fill
that quota, are forced to discount each barrel by
about $25 to be competitive.
"Part of the reluctance of investors to invest in
the Canadian oil business right now has centered
on that massive price differential," says Ben Rog-
ers, co-practice leader of the energy oil-and-gas
group at Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP.
e pipeline logjam is layered on top of that.
Shipping crude by rail from the oil sands to the
US Gulf Coast refineries can add as much as
US$20 a barrel on to costs.
So what's the answer? Rogers says: "Anything
that acts as a release valve to the industry."
e best release valve, most energy lawyers agree,
would be the completed Trans Mountain pipeline
expansion — if the federal government manages to
push it through right to the Pacific aer buying it
from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion.
Rogers steers away from the specifics of Trans
Mountain because Blakes acted for Kinder Mor-
gan, but with the Northern Gateway and Energy
East pipelines both cancelled by the federal gov-
ernment, he will say Trans Mountain is "the last
hope" of getting Canadian crude directly to tide-
waters, at least in the foreseeable future.
Even if it does get built, it will take several years.
In the meantime, the oil patch has to survive if not
actually thrive.
Merge, innovate or face extinction. at was
the advice.
It's not as though there has been no consoli-
'The 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.
They 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.'
- JANICE BUCKINGHAM,
OSLER HOSKIN & HARCOURT LLP
