Big Oil doing well

Imperial Oil, the brand name by which we know Exxon in Canada, has just announced
its q4 2011 results. Nett income is $1005 million, an increase of 26% from the same quarter in 2010.  I suppose that the people that really seem to matter, stock market analysts, will view this as disapointing and the share price will fall :)
Interesting also that in the accompanying press release 5 of the 6 bullet points of interest in the quarter mention the oil sands, Canada's oil patch still seems mesmerised by the dollars to be made regardless of environmental concerns expressed by some of the G20.

Monday Monday

Monday has rolled around again, and as is normal with each week comes a new resolve
to re-organise refettle and generally be better and more dynamic. This I find can be sorely tested by market lethargy and the general risk averse thinking that prevails these days. If some of our largest corporations thought now like they did when they were first conceived would they have ever achieved their current stature?

Robert Burns

In this international industry we all probably know one or two people of Scottish origin, don't be suprised if they're not in a the crack of dawn tomorrow. A Burns Night supper is a long observed Scottish tradition, a celebration of the life and works of Scotlands national bard Robert Burns, he wrote much more than just Auld Lang Syne.  http://www.robertburns.org/

West of St Lambert

The St Lawrence Seaway, the first lock is about 6 km in a straight line from where we sit, plays an important part in our daily shipping lives. For the 2012 season the governing body has announced that there will be no toll increases, good news in the light of our stubbornly sluggish economy. Also worthy of note was season 2011, at 284 days the longest on record (it beat 2007 by a day). With our climate seemingly becoming more moderate with every passing year this record will perhaps not stand for long.

    

Slain by the Dragon

Back in the office after a couple of days away, catching up with operations, sending thankyou messages and doing expenses...  The year of the dragon seems to be excuse of
the day for the market lethargy, it will no doubt spill over into the rest of the week too.
Whilst in Toronto favorite topics for discussion seemed to be (in no particular order)
Unseasonably high product inventories, Closing of the refinery in Saint Croix,
The North , New tonnage entering the Canadian market , Import cargo supply for
lakes opening.
Our challenge is now to try and make sense of all this and see how we can profitably participate......

Marine Club

Today is the annual Pilgrimage to downtown Toronto for the Marine Club
dinner.  Its a simple commuter flight of about an hour but for those of us who
don't travel a huge amount its always somewhat of a fuss, I feel that airlines and transport authorities conspire to make the paying public feel like farm animals .....
Once there its always great to catch up with clients and friends and perhaps lay the foundations for some future business.  My first meeting will be with someone I first met over 25 years ago, and since I see him infrequently, some convivial catching up will be fun, hopefully it will set a positive tone for the whole trip.

Time flies, and so do we

Here we are on the 18th of January, up to our tails in the white stuff, and as usual less
busy than we'd like to be when the Seaway is shut. Yesterday we heard the first signs of lakes interest for the 2012 season . I guess it's the Canadian Shipbrokers equivalent of the groundhog seeing his shadow on Febuary 2nd, we like it.

This Thursday and Friday it's the annual Marine Club dinner in Toronto ...... will you be there ?

http://themarineclub.org/

A trip to the chiller

Winter is now upon us, Canada can deal with the cold but with averages close to -20 celcius for the last 2 days things move just a little bit more slowly. Later today we'll get a  10 degree rise in temperatures so it will become more comfortable.  Ships are now operating in full winter conditions and we do have real ice to contend with as you approach the Pilot station at Les Escoumins ........ agents and ice advisors will supply all "how to's" on request but the latest chart from environment canada is as follows

http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/WIS28SD/20120115180000_WIS28SD_0006236894.pdf

The first one

Well, here we are are at work on a grey january afternoon..... one of our resolutions
for 2012 involved trying to find something usefull to do with our computers other than email.  so please bear with us, this is a little grass roots experiment in social media.