Author: Brian Zinchuk

Will a First Nation-owned pipeline be without protests and opposition?

Climate Cult Drill, Baby, Drill Insufferable Twits The Tolerant Left We Are All Treaty People 15 Comments

Can’t imagine why oil shippers demand explanation from Trans Mountain for pipeline cost overruns, can you?

B.C. First Nation and Western LNG partner to purchase natural gas pipeline project. Can they succeed in bringing a major pipeline in on time and on budget, or will they face the same perils as Trans Mountain (above) and Coastal GasLink? Will other First Nations do all they can to halt it, like GasLink? Will they destroy equipment and raid camps?

US Bureau of Land Management accepts bids for the sale of Federal Helium System. FYI the US Govt getting out of #helium is what’s driving Saskatchewan’s burgeoning industry

Hey, about that pipeline?

Drill, Baby, Drill Ethical Energy 14 Comments

Brian Zinchuk: If Poilievre wins a massive majority, can we PLEASE build the Energy East Pipeline?

(I’m fairly certain Premier Moe is tired about me asking about this. I was still talking about it two years ago, which was four years after it was supposed to have been completed. But it’s worth a shot.)

 

UPDATE: It appears Premier Scott Moe agrees:

 

About those multi-lateral wells … and the Alberta grid

Climate Cult Drill, Baby, Drill 6 Comments
Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Saturn Oil & Gas has joined the multi-lateral bandwagon, having drilled two open hole multi-lateral wells that the Government of Saskatchewan announced an incentive for yesterday (shared yesterday)

I’ve been saying for over a year the Government of Saskatchewan needs to do something to increase drilling numbers. I’m wondering if this is it?

Also: Alberta’s shaking up its electrical grid by 2027. And in a related story, new rules for power generators in Alberta

Drill, baby, drill. New drilling incentive in Saskatchewan

Drill, Baby, Drill 7 Comments

On Monday, Saskatchewan announced a new comprehensive program to attract investment to the province. One of the items is a new program to incentive multi-lateral wells. That’s a well that looks like a herringbone or spiderweb, with lots of legs and increased production.

The question I will be asking soon is if companies are already doing this, why do we need an incentive? Are we leaving money on the table, or is there an expectation of a lot more returns?

Pipeline chicken or the egg?

Drill, Baby, Drill 9 Comments

Pipeline capacity gets restrained, slowing growth in oil production. Pipelines get built (Enbridge Line 3 replacement, Trans Mountain Expansion, eventually) allowing for oil production to grow. Oil production will soon grow to use up all that extra capacity, and production growth will be restrained, again.

So then what? I’m not aware of ANY major new export pipelines projects being considered. After Northern Gateway, Keystone XL and Energy East being canned, who would? And after the federal government proved you could go 6x, maybe closer to 7x over budget building a pipeline they way they want it built, what idiot will try again?

The alternative will have to be crude-by-rail. Oh, lovely.

(That pipeline photos is of a tiny gathering pipeline near Estevan, not a mammoth transmission line.)

 

As for another fan (NOT) of crude by rail, Quick Dick McDick hauled canola recently. And sang about it. Seriously.

Reject Net Zero by 2050, says Sask United

Climate Cult Drill, Baby, Drill 49 Comments
Nadine Wilson. Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

 

Several commenters on SDA frequently point out if you accept the premise of your opponent’s argument, you’ve already lost. Looks like that’s what the Saskatchewan United Party is saying here.

Saskatchewan United Party calls on Sask Party government to reject Net Zero by 2050 policy. Leader Nadine Wilson says the Sask Party government seeks to shut down coal and natural gas for wind and solar, gets punted from assembly for calling government liars.

NDP calls for break on fuel tax, finance minister says it would be temporary

Wind peters out in Alberta, yet again, on Wednesday

Op-Ed: Kaase Gbakon: A (Hungry?) Tiger in Your Tank: Part 2

 

Carbon tax, carbon tax, carbon tax

Climate Cult 17 Comments
Leader of the Opposition Carla Beck during Question Period on March 4. Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

Guilbeault calls Saskatchewan premier ‘immoral’ for breaking carbon-price law.

Estevan MLA Lori Carr tries to show a difference between Sask Party and NDP on carbon tax in statement.

Premier Scott Moe during Question Period on March 4. Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan

That statement was referenced in the exchange between Scott Moe and Carla Beck in Question Period on the federal carbon tax. The NDP thinks Saskatchewan should have negotiated a carve-out deal.

A plan to save coal, power generation, and the oil industry in SE Sask

Climate Cult Drill, Baby, Drill 23 Comments
Boundary Dam Power Station

What if there was a way to keep coal mining jobs in Saskatchewan, continue to produce low-cost electrical power, and extend the production of a substantial portion of Saskatchewan’s oilfields not by decades, but by generations? And in doing so, we could still dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and maybe save some money by reducing our nuclear rollout?

Recent developments from Whitecap Resources showing using CO2 in the Frobisher formation led to initial results of 5x improved production. Not 5%, or 50%, but 5x. That’s 500%. I’m not saying it’ll stay anywhere close to that, but we should be taking a very serious look at this development, especially since most new drilling in southeast Saskatchewan is focused on the Frobisher, part of the Mississippian. While the Bakken was a flash in the pan, the Mississippian has been the mainstay of SE Sask oil production for generations. And this is a generational opportunity, but we will let it slip through our fingers if we shut down our coal-fired power plants.

This is one of the most significant opinion pieces I’ve ever done with regards to energy. It basically puts it all together.

 

Carbon Tax, Round Three, Fight!

Climate Cult 20 Comments

Carbon tax war heats up between Saskatchewan and feds. Duncan says Saskatchewan won’t remit carbon tax after his “walk in the rain.” Wilkinson says no carbon rebates for Saskatchewan after province says it won’t remit. Moe says no rebate = no carbon tax.

Also,

Where are we going? Higher!

Trans Mountain’s latest cost estimate climbs 10 per cent

About that walk in the snow… SaskEnergy minister takes a walk in the rain

Climate Cult 17 Comments

Justin Trudeau may not have taken a “walk in the snow,” like his father did 40 years ago on this day, but Dustin Duncan took a walk in rain in front of Parliament, and decides we’re not remitting carbon tax to the feds. 

This is the guy who, by a recently passed law, gets to be sacrificed on the cross for our carbon tax sins.

(The decision was clearly made before, but it makes good political theatre.)

No forecast for snow in Ottawa today, unfortunately. Maybe the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change changed the climate?

 

So long, spinny things in front of mountains!

Climate Cult 42 Comments
Wind turbines won’t be allowed near mountains anymore. And when these reach end of life, those sites won’t be rebuilt with new, larger ones, if these rules stick.

Don’t block our mountains or mess with good farmland: #Alberta releases renewable power rules. And reclamation is going to be paid up front. This story is the full meat, potatoes, gravy and carrots on Wednesday’s wind and solar announcement.

And what’s the pool at for Trudeau resigning today? It’s 40 years to the day since daddy took his “walk in the snow.”

Should Saskatchewan again have a sovereign wealth fund?

Drill, Baby, Drill youmightbeinsaskatchewan 15 Comments

With Alberta going all-in on its sovereign wealth fund (posted yesterday), should Saskatchewan take another look at one of its own? We had one, but it didn’t last long, and turned into something of a slush fund for Crown corporations, apparently. I dug up this discussion paper that was written by U of R professor Stuart Wilson which is actually pretty good. I republished the entire paper, with his permission, on Pipeline Online.

Perhaps ironically, Norway’s massive sovereign wealth fund was originally modelled on Alberta’s. And that fund is now worth US$1.42 trillion dollars (with a “t”). (Norway has less oil than Alberta).

Alberta’s going all-in on its sovereign wealth fund

Climate Cult youmightbeinsaskatchewan 22 Comments
Danielle Smith

Danielle Smith goes all-in on revitalized sovereign wealth fund for Alberta. Saskatchewan had one, once, but that was 32 years ago. Details in story.

Quick Dick McDick: Climate Cult Megaspecial You gotta be $#!++!\ me

He even references “climate cult,” my favourite SDA category!

CJME/CKOM radio host Evan Bray visits the Estevan coal mine, and much learning ensues

I’m trying. I really am. But they make it so hard sometimes…

Climate Cult 9 Comments
Brian Crossman

Brian Crossman in Pipeline Online: “I am. I’m really, really trying. I had a bit of a rough year health-wise, which of course leads to over-thinking your place in the world. So, I thought I would try to be a better person. You know, be nice to strangers, try harder at all the important things, do better at being charitable. But the biggest change I wanted to make was to quit complaining about, berating and outright insulting our political leaders.”

Eye in the sky to track Russkies on the ground

Military 215 Comments

Canada’s paying about $118,000 each for 800 drones to be supplied to Ukraine. Notably, none of these seem to be fitted to drop grenades or mortar bombs, which is a crying shame.

This is at least Canada doing something. However, as a former reservist who follows such things, I don’t think we have that many drones in our entire military here in the land of the beaver. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. We should be making a matching order, ourselves.

EDIT: missed this part: “can handle a variety of payloads up to 3.5 kilograms, including munitions.”

If the Russians aren’t stopped in Ukraine, we’ll be fighting them in a NATO country next. I know nothing of this news site – if it’s Russian or what (says you can read in Russian), but it has several articles making noise that Russia is starting to agitate on Norwegian islands in the Arctic. Wasn’t it just a month ago Norway’s top general warned of impending war with Russia?

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