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Things didn’t so look good for the Nova Scotia offshore sector five years ago. Reserves at the Sable Offshore natural gas project were decreasing, exploratory wells had turned up dry, and the Deep Panuke natural gas field was on hold indefinitely. But things are different today, and it seems like the Nova Scotian offshore might be coming into its second wind.

In March 2010, ExxonMobil filed an application to conduct an offshore seismic survey close to its Sable Island natural gas project to consider “the feasibility of bringing in additional gas supplies to the (Sable project) from some (35) undeveloped fields.”

Deep Panuke, meanwhile, is about a year from first gas, and its owner, Encana is poised to become the single largest producer of natural gas in North America. (Note: EnCana rebranded itself this spring as a dedicated pure play natural gas company, after spinning off its oil holdings as Cenovus in the fall of 2009. Part of that rebranding was changing the name from EnCana to Encana.)

Deep Panuke was discovered in 1998 by PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., two years after the Alberta company purchased the Cohasset and Panuke oil fields on the Scotian shelf. Progress continued, but in 2003 the company (named EnCana after a merger with AEC) put the project on hold. The original plan called for three separate platforms, owned and operated by EnCana, and this was deemed prohibitively expensive.

EnCana filed new plans in 2006, and they were approved in 2007. Almost immediately the Dutch company, Single Buoy Moorings Offshore, was selected for the provision and operation of the Deep Panuke production field centre. SBM will own and operate the single production platform (as opposed to the originally proposed three) which Encana will lease for the duration (an estimated 13 years) of the project. When the well is dry, SBM will disassemble the platform for use elsewhere.

The design capacity of the current project is 300 MMscfd (million standard cubic feet) of gas, totaling an estimated 632-billion cubic feet, all of which will be sold to the Spanish oil and gas company Repsol YPF SA. Made in 2009, the deal is “a chance to get access to more gas, and it allows us to gain market share and grow faster than we’d originally thought we’d be able to,” said Respol spokesman Kristian Rix.

Gas will be processed on the offshore production facility and transported via new subsea pipeline to Goldboro, N.S., where it will connect to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, with average annual production phase expenditures of approximately $150-million. Encana could have used existing subsea infrastructure owned by ExxonMobil to pipe its gas to land, but building the new pipe was cheaper than paying the tolls for use of the old one.

Two and a half years in, the project is a year behind schedule and $100-million over the original $700-million budget. Drilling was delayed by weather last fall, and the production facility being fabricated in Abu Dhabi is late as well. “Cost control is always important, but sometimes increases happen,” said Lori MacLean, an Encana spokeswoman, noting that everything is still on track despite the delays. “Things are progressing. There are a number of activities happening in parallel this summer,” she said.

Offshore, those activities include the completion of drilling on production wells and the commencement of a subsea program to install flowlines. Onshore, the subsea pipeline that made landfall in Goldboro last year will be connected to the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline.

Economically, the Deep Panuke development has been a boon for Nova Scotia. Encana’s plan promised 1.35 million person hours of work in Nova Scotia during development, no less than 850,000 of which will be for Nova Scotians. Encana will pay royalties between $50-million and $300-million to the Nova Scotian government over the life of the project, but Paul McEachern, managing director of the Offshore/Onshore Technologies Association of Nova Scotia (OTANS), sees many more benefits than what will, in the long term, be fairly modest royalties.

According to McEachern, the project has both economic and symbolic importance. On the economic side he sees the development of Deep Panuke as doing three things. “It is keeping some of our company skills at home, and that is important if you’re trying to maintain a current resume so you can sell your goods and services abroad. Secondly, it gives us a second customer, and everyone in business knows that it is absolutely crucial to your business to have two customers. And thirdly, by filling the provincial coffers with offshore royalty revenues it continues to solidify support for the sector among the public,” he said.

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Brian Gruchy recalls the Riverfront Chalets as being “some of the most beautiful I’ve ever stayed in.” But he wasn’t 20 km west of Grand Falls-Windsor to enjoy the room. He was there to go rafting. “I’ll be honest, I had some reservations. It’s like jeez, what are we doing? What’s this going to be all about? But I must say, when I left there I thought, when are we going back again?”

Brian Gruchy is an advisor with Sun Life insurance. Rafting on the Exploits River was a fun thing for the company staff to do, but the organizers had an ulterior motive. Sun Life has two offices in Newfoundland, one in Corner Brook and one in St. John’s, but representatives are spread out across the island. Since they are classified as self-employed, on some level they are competing with each other.

Corner Brook manager Geraldine St. Croix says they’re always on the lookout for activities to build rapport. “Typically you’re not the best of friends with your competitor, but we try to instill in people the idea that ‘while you might be in business for yourself, everyone can help each other grow’.”

Paul and Joy Rose have been running river trips for on the Exploits for 13 years, and they haven’t gone after corporate business, it has come to them. “I can’t think of anything that would be better team building than rafting,” says Paul. “I mean, you’re all sitting there, working together as a team. The river is fast moving, with a couple of good sized rapids.”

Sun Life tried bowling and golfing. They had family days with lawn games. But the rafting trip was perfect. They got to stay at four-and-a-half star chalets, and the trip down the river presented just the right mix of difficulty and fun.

This is the business of outdoor team building.

Across the island a newer company, My Newfoundland Adventures, has made a name in the last six years selling more involved adventure packages. The company runs summer camps, certification classes, and small group trips, but it has also devoted considerable energy to attracting corporate clients.

They offer pre-packaged or custom-tailored trips, from dog sledding to white water kayaking and ice climbing to snorkeling with the migrating salmon, but almost everything focuses on creating camaraderie in the face of physical challenges. Unlike Riverfront Chalets, almost all of their corporate business comes from away, sometimes, from far way.

Operations manager Martin Hanazlek was kind enough to give a ‘for instance’: “So let’s say we have a drug company out in California. One of the guys is the head of sales. The other guy in the group is the chief medical officer. And somehow they’re butting heads. And these are high level executives who need to be able to work together. So we package a program where they don’t even know where they’re going. They meet in LA in the airport, we give them a couple of parkas (because they have no idea where they’re going) and we pick them up at the airport in Newfoundland. Then we put them in situations where they need to work together, say dog sledding or a snowmobile expedition trip. Ideally, when it’s over, they can go back to the work place and find that their productivity and relationship have improved.”

It’s not always about fixing dysfunctional relationships with cloak and parka intrigue, but that story is pretty much the idea behind the My Newfoundland Adventure’s corporate packages; People work better together when they’ve had to take care of each other (to some extent) in the wilderness.

“We get these people all together and we build custom team building programs to suit their needs. We work on tearing down the group a little bit, and then we build them up through experiential outdoor adventure programs,” said Hanzalek.

In pursuit of business with a capital “B” I went to the “Satellite Spoke Club” an invite only lounge in the S Resturant on Duckworth. According to the website, “The Spoke Club is a private members club conceived as a gathering place for individuals with an interest in media, entertainment and the arts. It is a comfortable hideaway to meet for a drink, eat well, do some business, entertain friends, and even catch a movie.” It’s in Toronto.

So the idea was to take that kind of exclusive laid back invite only space, and recreate it in St. John’s for the benefit of local and visiting musicians. The S Restaurant Satellite Spoke club (try saying that three times fast) was “presented by the Pepsi brand” (along with Sky Vodka and Molson) and it was produced by The Pilot Agency, a boutique event booking and design outfit (also from Toronto). I’ve never heard of a lounge being produced before, but these are strange waters we’re sailing in.

So what was it like? It wasn’t crowded, but there were people. Bands came in and snacked on the finger food, and conferred with their handlers. Pilot’s president, Joel Baskin said he was trying to create a stress free “lounge feel,” and, based on my very limited lounging experience, I’d say he did a pretty good job. There was a constant stream of fairly normal finger food. The beer was free. Groups of young men with carefully unkempt hair were told they could take a nap by blackberry wielding women in their mid twenties. Skinny jeans and support free shoes abounded.

I’d found the back room. The thing is, it wasn’t a place to make a deal. I talked to Ryan Stewart (who’s up for Songwriter of the Year with Carly Rae Jepson tonight), a writer and producer from Vancouver. “I’m trying to meet as many people as possible,” he said. “Trying to maximize the exposure this nomination has given me.” Stewart is behind the scenes guy, he’s not going to be followed around the mall by screaming tweens, and with most of the music industry in Toronto, he hoped to establish connections that would lead to work down the road.

If it accomplished what it set out to do, the Satellite Spoke Club still wasn’t a must hit destination. A lot of bands were late getting in, and others were busy playing free sets at Fred’s Records.

Fred's was cramed with people while the Great Lake Swimmers played a free set

There was a lot more mixing at the gala dinner last night, and then a different kind of socialization on George St. afterwards.

Maybe it’s just that it was saturday night, or maybe more of the bands were in town out celebrating wins and watching each other play, but every venue I tried to get into was at capacity last night. There were lineups outside, and famous people abounded. Some were nice, chatting with fans, waiting in line, and generally acting like normal people. Some were less down to earth, pushing their way into clubs already violating fire codes, jumping fences, and generally acting as though they were entitled. But truthfully, they were few and far between, and when I got into Junctions, and saw members of at least five groups, led by New Group of the Year winning Arkells, singing “Dancing in the Dark” on stage, the exercise seemed less about business and more about celebrating a weekend in a city full of music.

Arkells and friends at Junctions. Photo/Emily Wilson

I got video of it, the sound isn’t great, but you’ll get the idea.

In the normal course of events, opening bands rarely start playing till 11 — and I’ve waited till after 1:30 to see a headlining act.  I think that’s ridiculous, and apparently, the organizers did too.

Last night shows started when they were supposed to — and all of the shows were wrapped up by 1:20 AM — an eminently reasonable time to head home in the rain.

But I was disappointed by how the organizers handled schedule changes in light of weather delays.   A lot of bands (I heard around half) didn’t make it in yesterday — but there were no public updates about who was, or wasn’t coming.   This left people waiting out in the rain in a lineup for the Handsome Furs, who were not even in town.  I was planning to see Down With Webster, and they were stuck in Halifax.  You can’t change the weather, but you can keep people informed.

I also heard that the lineup to see Metric and the the Arkells was brutal.  Lauren Rae, a  graduate student at Memorial University, got to the show around 8 PM, an hour after the doors were supposed to be open.  By 9:30, the Arkells had started their set, but the throng was so intense that people still weren’t able to get in.  Rae sold her ticket to a hopeful lad, and went to George St. where things were actually much calmer.

For myself, I spent the evening in The Well, a small sports bar above George St.  I  saw two local acts, The Mountains & The Trees, and Mark Bragg and the Butchers, and one Juno nominated duo 1977, up for Adult Alternative Album of the year.

The crowd was pretty small throughout the evening, and was largely made up of St. John’s locals with the exception of one couple, Jeff and Alison from Ottawa.  They stayed the whole evening on the suggestion of someone they met downtown. “I seriously love everything Newfie,” Jeff told me.  “I’m in construction so I know a lot of them, and we’ve wanted to come for a really long time.   I’m from Halifax, so it’s close to my heritage too.”

The Mountains & The Trees

I talked to Jon James, the man behind The Mountains & The Trees about playing for the Junos, but in front of such a small, local, crowd. “I always say, it’s better to be playing than not playing,” he said. “If even one person comes up and says ‘hey, good set’ that’s good.”  James has been singing as The Mountains & The Trees for about three years, and after playing the Junos, NXNE, and the Toronto Film Festival, he’s ready to quit his day job and make a go of it.  “It’s all about putting yourself out there, making contacts and then the follow up.”  He’s spending the Junos walking around with a shoulder bag of cards and CD’s, and he’s hoping to follow up on this weekend’s connections some time in the future.  “If you go up to someone in a bar — well there’s probably a reason he’s there, so you don’t want to bother them.  But I always try to get a card back — and then follow up a couple weeks down the road,” he said.

Mark Bragg & The Butchers

Mark Bragg had a very different approach.  “Every gig is really important, really fun,” he said. “But I’m not out here trying to make it in that sense.  I enjoy festivals but I don’t want to be clawing for recognition. “  Bragg owns a convenience store in town, and he’s been singing with the Butchers for 14 years.  The singing is fun, “really fun,” but he’s got a solid business.  “Festivals do a really good job of getting people excited about music, and I’m really glad to be part of it,” he said.  “But I’m not trying to meet anyone in particular or anything like that.”

Executive Producer John Brunton, Set Designer Peter Faragher on the Set at Mile One.

As far as themes go, Icebergs are safe (unless you’re sailing), pretty, and apolitical.  One supposes that an offshore rig was considered, but then again, maybe not.

The Question and Answer period revealed a preoccupation with “keeping the vibe of the the Vancouver Olympics” — which explains why CTV is working through sleet and snow to make George St. a viable part of the awards broadcast. Executive Producer John Brunton wants a street filled with excited fans, and he had technicians working in the snow last night to rehearse it. “We’re ready for four seasons in one day,” he said.

The foul weather (which might have made a more fitting, if less iconic set theme) is causing some concern with regards to travel. A combination of snow and fog have caused cancelation into St. John’s and Halifax, and then of course there’s a Giant Plume of Ash making it difficult to fly west from Europe right now.

Photo/CBC

Burton was candid that they were working on contingency plans, in case artists slated to preform or present didn’t make it in on time.

“We were going to have surprises for you anyway,” he said.  “We might just have a few more.”

As far as the actual broadcast goes, not much was revealed.  Instead of having a host, nearly 30 artists (including Deadmau5, Hedley and Great Big Sea) will present awards in the 39 categories.  In nine of those categories nominees were judged based on sales figures,  which might explain the lack of dinosaur costumed heavy metal acts, for kids.

Do you like the icebergs?  Do you have a better idea for a Juno theme?  Comments away!

Official Observations for the evening:

Telling people to dance rarely has the desired effect, but a badass horn section often does.

Idlers. Photo/Martin Connelly

A good line up will induce even reasonable people to go out on a Thursday night.

Those same reasonable people will even pay $6.25 for cans of Black Horse.

Sold out, the Delta Ballroom is still half empty.

Novaks. Photo/Emily Wilson

Rock and Roll is not dead.

One lighter waved in the air inevitably leads to more, but not as many as you would think.

Getting people to clap is much easier than getting them to dance.

Photo/Martin Connelly

Radio hosts sometimes feel compelled to drink a full beer on stage.

The Junos are really happening, and people are excited about it.

Cello makes every song better, seriously.

Hey Rosetta! Photo/Emily Wilson

More pics at www.flickr.com/abmonline

]]> http://www.abmonline.ca/blogs/none-of-that-old-time-rock-and-roll/feed/ 0 http://www.abmonline.ca/blogs/ruckus-schmuckus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ruckus-schmuckus http://www.abmonline.ca/blogs/ruckus-schmuckus/#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:15:38 +0000 Martin Connelly http://www.abmonline.ca/?p=3054 We’re just under half way through Juno week, and we’re three for four with the Ruckus On The Edge. Ruckus on the Edge was supposed to take what is usually just a weekend event, and fill it out to take up a whole week.

Apart from that, the ruckus was designed to showcase artists from Newfoundland and Labrador (who are represented solely by Amelia Curran in the actual nominations). According to Maggie O’Keefe, the even coordinator, they are “very pleased with the numbers, and all of the venues have been pretty crowded.”

The concerts might be crowded, but downtown certainly isn’t. I walked around this afternoon conducting a highly scientific survey, and the results are resoundingly consistent. There have been a couple tourists walking around — but certainly not very many. The Franklin Hotel is booked solid this weekend, but people don’t start arriving till tomorrow afternoon. Fred’s records is still in prep mode. They’re looking forward to a busy weekend — but not until tomorrow night.

Business at the Heritage Shop (158 Duckworth St.), one of a few places to buy officially licensed Juno garb, has actually gone down since the commemorative clothes came out a couple weeks ago. Just down the street, Anita Carroll, President of Posie Row (210 Duckworth St.), said “Just today we’ve started seeing people, a few tourists. But I have no doubts we’ll start seeing people on the weekend.”

On it’s own, it’s not clear that the Ruckus has done much to bring business to St. John’s any earlier than it would have come otherwise. But then again, you can’t just start off a concert with the headlining act. You need a warm up band, something to get people in the mood as they trickle in, and in that context, the Ruckus might not be doing such a bad job. I’ll find out tonight at the “Our Music Our Heritage” concert.

UPDATE:

Photo by Emily Wilson

After going to the show, I worry that yesterday’s post might have been a little harsh. Ruckus on the Edge hasn’t really created downtown business, but there were maybe 300 people watching at the concert last night, and they probably wouldn’t have been out on a Wednesday night otherwise.

It was a pretty laid back atmosphere, there was plenty of room for everyone, and even a sitting area reminiscent of (so the performers said) the summer folk festival in Bannerman Park. Sets were short, and it was hosted by K-Rock personality Bill Gregory, who mostly kept things moving along.

It wasn’t all standard Radio Newfoundland fare, either, though with The Once and The Navigators there were enough bass boosted traditional tunes to keep people happy. Perhaps most surprising was a dance performance by Tzu-Hao Hsu, originally from Taiwan.

The people I talked to out by the bar were generally local (or close enough) and enthusiastic about the music and the Junos in general. I don’t know if a ruckus was raised, but it was a very pleasant evening, that’s for sure.

Click to start the slideshow

Today was also the day that that production crews got into the Mile One Center to start putting up the stage, the lights, and whatever else 18 tractor trailer trucks hold.  I went down and got the skinny on the action from producer Louise Woods, who spends most of her year making sure one night goes off just right.

I also talked to Melanie Berry, president and CEO of CARAS, who told me that they released another 200 tickets this morning. If you wanted to go to the broadcast event, but didn’t make it to the ticket counter in the first 14 minutes, here’s your chance. They’ll be releasing new tickets every day, all week.

If you don’t make it into Mile One, organizers are hoping you’ll head downtown anyway, to the Junos on George, “an unprecedented street party.” The fun will be broadcast live on CTV, and they are confident that 4000 people will be down there for the event. Tickets are $20 and available as of two days ago.

What do you think? What are you excited about? What do you want from me, your humble Juno reporter? Put it all in the comments!

When I talked to Chris Kearney a couple weeks ago, he said that The Junos wouldn’t be changing anything, really, but they would be bringing the summer rush up by about two weeks. This Week, Delta Hotel manager Doug Loucks said pretty much the same thing.

“Usually we’d be doing our summer hiring and training starting pretty soon, but this year we did all of the hiring at the end of March,” he said. “Every summer we have 30-50 new hires for the summer season, and we’re just training them now.”

The Delta is sold out Thursday – Sunday of next week. CARAS booked blocks of room back when they decided St. John’s was going to be host city, and then there are the people going to the broadcast event to think about too.

“There will be challenges, taking care of high profile guests and regular guests, but that’s really what we do,” said Loucks. “We’ve been meeting as a core operational team to figure out serving hours, people flow, and all that.”

“People flow” will be a big deal at the Delta. The ballroom is one of the bigger Juno venues, so hotel staff will have to worry about revelers getting out of hand, in addition to keeping the musicians happy.

Is the hotel ready to deal with trashed rooms and bizarre requests for football helmets full of cottage cheese? Well yes and no. “We’re ready,” said Loucks, “with any event like this there’s a sense of realism, but musicians are just people. The biggest thing is having the type of tea they like. And they’ll be treated like any other guests.”

Fortis (which owns the Delta) is a Platinum Level sponsor of the Junos, but Loucks said that filling up was never the point. “Both Fortis and the Delta appreciate the community we live in and sponsor many events. This one just happens to be higher profile than most.”

That said, the Junos do present a good opportunity to the Delta and other members of Destination St. John’s a private company that sells St. John’s as, well, a destination. “We’ll have a lot of high profile guests here, it’ll be a great opportunity to sell the city!” said Loucks.

The Ruckus on the Edge is from Monday April 12th (less than two weeks to away!) through Thursday the 15th. It’s been put together by the host committee, and it is meant to get the party ball rolling, while showcasing local music. It is not, in point of fact, the Junos. Think of it as a hanging out in the apartment knocking a few back before heading down to George St.

JunoFest is on Friday and Saturday the 16th and 17th. It includes a bunch of preplanned events (which I talked about last week) and also a boat load of concerts at local venues.

But if you mean the big red carpet award ceremony, that’s the Junos, and that is on Sunday night April 18th.

Now that that’s cleared up, let’s get on with it.

This week I sat down with Gene Browne, who owns The Levee and plays lead guitar for a band called Overlay. Overlay just won the Ruckus on the Edge theme song contest, which means they will perform at the Juno Cup on Friday, April 16th and will receive a one year membership in Music NL, two four hour recording sessions courtesy of Record Time Productions, and a mentoring session with Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea.

“We tried to put together something that was exactly what they were looking for,” says Browne. “Something with lots of energy – poppy enough for people to get into but still very much rock and roll.” With just days to go before the deadline Brown heard about the song contest from a friend, and the band was able to re-write the lyrics of a recent song between takes at the recording studio. “We were shocked to actually win,” says Browne, “people usually stick with traditional music around here, and were were up against a bunch of trad songs in the contest. But we were actually different, and that appealed to a lot of people.” It doesn’t hurt that Browne runs a popular bar that sees good business even on week nights. “We have a lot of friends,” he admits.

Browne has owned The Levee for just under a year, and he’s quickly turned it into a go-to destination for live music. His business strategy is reminiscent of Dave Petten’s. “I just treat everyone with respect, you know?” he says. “And I’ve never had to kick anyone out, in almost a year. Now that’s amazing.”

With his feet firmly planted on each side of the businesses-art divide, Browne is looking forward to the Junos. “There’s so much talent in this city,” he says, “having all this industry representation will be really great – it’ll certainly be a good way to get noticed.” If you try. Originally from Placentia Bay, Browne didn’t end up owning his own bar by hanging out hoping to be noticed. “It’s really up to you. If you want to make [the Junos] a lasting opportunity, you will,” he says. “if not, sure it’ll be a good week, but that will be it.”

So there you go. Good advice and a song to go with it: