Total writes off $9.3-billion in oil sands assets, cancels CAPP membership
It will take writedowns worth $7.3-billion related to its 24.6 per cent ownership in the Fort Hills oil sands mine operated by partner Suncor Energy Inc., the company said, and its 50 per cent stake in the Surmont thermal oil sands project operated by partner ConocoPhillips.
Total will also write off $2-billion in other oil sands assets, it said, along with $1.07-billion on its liquefied natural gas assets in Australia.
Total said it is leaving CAPP because of a “misalignment” between the organization’s public positions and those expressed in Total’s climate ambition statement announced in May.
“It is disappointing that they would write down Canadian assets, and increase their focus in Africa and Brazil and the Middle East,” said CAPP CEO Tim McMillan in an interview.
“As a company, over the last few years, they’ve increased investment and focus in those jurisdictions.”
I’m in calgary, my city isn’t dying , it’s getting murdered
In recent months, I’ve flown with WestJet to and from my house in B. C. Each trip, I have to pass through Calgary. The plane usually approaches the airport by flying over the city. It’s hard to believe that the centre is a ghost town with all those skyscrapers there.
Bill, that comment is spot on. I’ve lived in Calgary for most of the last 50 years and have seen my city get brutally attacked time and again. After each assault, somehow, the city recovered and went on to new heights. Not this time. Unless there is a massive injection of common sense – a major supposition – we’re dead.
You guys will be dead as long as Albertans remain Canadians
Bill D. Cat – As Margaret Thatcher said “Remember George, this is no time to go wobbly”.
If you scroll down to the end of the article it notes that “Two years ago, Europe’s largest bank, HSBC Holdings plc, announced it would no longer offer financial services for new oil sands projects or pipelines, a move that led to Suncor vowing to end all business with HSBC, including in its conventional oil operations in Europe”.
In January 2018 HSBC stock was worth 791 GBX (Pence). Today it was 362 GBX and it has been a steady decline. Karma is a Karen.
Google search “LON: HSBA”
And His Purpleness in is there with a machine gun.
Total, like any other business, knows the cost of doing business in those other states where corruption is rife.
Total doesn’t know what the federal Liberals are going to impose next, it could be anything really…
I actually expect the Liberals to lash out at their enemies more often if they see their popularity fall as a result of the NS RCMP scandal, the ME scandal, the whatever we haven’t heard of yet scandal…
Doesn’t Prime Minister Dinglefritz have a stake in Total? Mind you, taking a short-term loss for the greater reward for selling out his own country probably doesn’t bother him in the least.
Total is owned by the Desmarais family who have been financing the Trudeaus for 50 years. Their main supply is from the middle east.
I actually expect the Liberals to lash out at their enemies more often
They’re not lashing out. They’re punishing the rest of us, particularly those that don’t support then, for their mistakes.
Nenshi, socialist council, wierd and revolting for centre of free West capitalism. Nothing more to be said. Sad but true.
“Hewwo, Pwethident Thi? I’ve got a countwy fow thale, cheap.”
Should add, with this massive writedown, likely recover best part of any taxes paid.
Another “win” for T2 and gang of Eastern mutts. Gifts just keep coming folks, future gens get to float the country, as slaves. My opinion.
All the best, enjoy the decline, she’s well underway.
I want a time machine , i could make this right in less than a month
TOTAL has always been flaky. When I was in the industry, they came up with more plans than you could shake a stick at and virtually all of them fell through. It’s all political from Paris.
Been working as contractor with them for last 10 years in West Africa in the Offshore sector. They are not an oil company any longer but an “Energy” company. Preaching mother Guia and Global Warming / Paris Accord .. mind numbing on a daily basis..
It’s owned by Paul Desmarais – Trudeau buddy
Total is Fwench. That’s how they justify screwing over Kanuckistan in the name of Gaia; then go sleeping with the other terrorist oil producers.
Shrug. I’d have cancelled my CAPP membership a long time ago. What a pathetic outfit.
Kate, please don’t post links requiring a subscription to the Mop and Pail.
Here’s what CBC said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/suncor-total-fort-hills-conocophillips-tim-mcmillan-1.5668095
You can safely ignore all the crap that Stewart of Greenpeace invented. The reason is buried here:
“Total now considers oil reserves with high production costs that are to be produced more than 20 years in the future to be “stranded” given its carbon reduction targets and because the resource may not be produced by 2050, the Paris-based company said Wednesday.
It will take write-downs worth $7.3 billion related to its 24.6 per cent ownership in the Fort Hills oilsands mine operated by partner Suncor Energy Inc., the company said, and its 50 per cent stake in the Surmont thermal oilsands project operated by partner ConocoPhillips.
Total will also write off $2 billion in other oilsands assets, it said, along with $1.07 billion on its liquefied natural gas assets in Australia.”
The picture is pretty clear. this is about shedding assets which are unproductive in the future. After Russia and Saudi Arabia punched each other’s lights out to control market share earlier this year, Total is shedding losers. It started scaling back a couple of years ago. This is simply continuing along. It’s not just about Canada; they also shed LNG assets in Australia.
I am not clear on why they are leaving. Is is because they want to be more like Greenpeace or because it is not good business? In one scenario they are absolutelty insane, a possibility which should not be discounted.
cgh – “Total is shedding losers.”
Conversely I presume that Africa, Brazil and the Middle East are “winners”?
“It is disappointing that they would write down Canadian assets, and increase their focus in Africa and Brazil and the Middle East,” said CAPP CEO Tim McMillan in an interview.
Ironically the IEA sees African and Middle Eastern production dropping over the next five years while Canada has modest growth.
https://www.iea.org/reports/oil-2020#key-findings
The large multinationals are run by spin doctors and virtue signalers and thanks to the decades of US funded hysteria pimps along with a few of our own, to them the Oil Sands are toxic. Thanks to the Spawn’s basic dictatorship and his puppet master, there are safer investment opportunities overseas. The Oil Patch has some excellent companies but their share prices refuse to show it with current oil prices and liberal / Quebec animosity.
I hung the freaking wallpaper in that assholes nenshis office , has the biggest vanity wall in the history outside , fuck him , sorry Kate
As long as Albertans want to stay in Canada we will continue to get raped by Canada. We are having our pockets picked by the likes of Trudeau and Craig Keilburger and their gun grabbing gestapo who refuse to do anything about any Liberal crimes. All while chasing our economy into Africa etc. WE are the laughing stock. Trudeau (and all the PM’s before him) is laughing at us while filling his pockets with what is left of this province. How any self-respecting Albertan can be OK with that is beyond me. I am ashamed to say, I was previously one of those people that thought Alberta had a chance within confederation. That Canadians would support us. Ha.
At this point, it’s pretty hard to blame Canada for taking that which we so gleefully give them. Pretty hard to get mad at a bum on the street for asking for your money if you keep shrugging your shoulders and giving it to him. Kenney isn’t living up to any of his promises other than chest puffing and talking. He needs to go. Alberta needs a strong separatist gov’t and that requires Albertans to come to their senses and vote/donate appropriately. Whether that happens or not…I am realistically doubtful, but still slightly hopeful.
“At this point, it’s pretty hard to blame Canada for taking that which we so gleefully give them.”
So, what about people who continue to vote for people and parties that have been promising “balanced budgets” for 50 years, and have yet to deliver?
Maybe that politician who’s been making the same promises since your great grandparents walked the earth will actually deliver after you are dead. What do I know?
I don’t make advance payments on my bathroom reno, and never look in the bathroom again. I am not smart like the Sask Party and CPoC voters. I, like a moron, expect the promises to be fulfilled in a timely manner. If it is not, I look for a different vendor.
I mean, it is like paying for a car; who would actually expect to ever get a car, by just forking over $30k to a guy walking by on the street?
Preston Manning said the west wants in, I tried voting for him. West never got in.
Tried Wall, Harper, no budgets ever balanced, still in the UN, still paying for CBC, still have equalization, crow rate still gone, still no pipelines, no protesters have ever been arrested, no court orders have ever been enforced, …
I want a better country back
Good news! You’re getting a new country! Just not one you wanted; one that Toronto and Montreal think is a good idea.
You can’t consider Lotusland in that because it hasn’t considered itself a part of Canada for decades.
Is Jason done his listening tour?
Duhhhh. Every oil company all over the world is writing down assets because their asset value has fallen below book value.
Damn,Total is showing some sense.
The Crooks of Africa have standards,a better set of ethics than the Federal Government of Can Ahh Duh.
At least the African Bandits stay bought.
So they are far more trustworthy to do business with,than a juvenile group of virtue signallers who are quite happy to change the rules as soon as you buy into their game.
There will be no sane investment in the Oilsands,while Alberta remains in Confederation.
Our Federal Government,supported by our Eastern Comrades, has made it very plain,they will oppose and hinder,by any means possible any and every development in This Region.
Buttzy Boy still controls the agenda and nothing Elected Westerners can do,will gain sufficent Eastern support to bypass the Prime Idiot and his Master.
Face it,no business is going to spend a billion dollars to jump through every legal hoop and consultation process,just to see project approval vanish,at the lawless whim of Haters.
Even their campaign rhetoric proudly admits their hatred of The West.
So why do we continue to fund the enemy?
We know they are fools and bandits.
But we are beyond stupid.
We must be to permit this continuous abuse.
Now that so many of us are forbidden to produce,perhaps now would be a good time to starve the beast.
I’m guessing Total is as signalling their assessment of a number of things of which there have been millions of words commented on this blog. Pipelines are impossible now in Canada and increasingly difficult in the US. The business climate in Canada It’s shattered. Strong domestic US oil production continues, meaning we no longer have a hungry, captive market while all others are denied to us. Total’s investor activism willingly ignores sh1tholes and tyrants and sports the propoganda of those that hate us.
This COVID pause is simply the deep breath before the final plunge into the attack on all things oil without reason or argument. After November the renewal of the green BS will surpass all that has preceded it. They have told us to kneel, I’ve been listening I suspect you have as well. They will tell us we were warned but didn’t stop our sinful hard working, productive, ways, our bad, the smog in Shanghai.
CAPP has always been weak, Total likewise is weak and was never more than a second tier player in Canada.
Weaker still the Alberta’s leadership. Praying for commodities to turn is a crappy leadership strategy. It has been for 50 years and there are no more booms coming to enrich us and save the self-agradizing we elect. We should’ve learned from methane, the price crashed more than a decade ago. Oil is constrained so now we bet on plastic to save the day, why, it’s going too.
When do we acknowledge the murder of this industry and launch a non-BS effort for other industry. We lose this battle every year and every day I see 1,000,000 feet of empty office space, so much more obvious than the the suicide victims and shattered famalies that are swept under the rug.
Unthinkably, unbelievably, Alberta is a have-not province now. Why are we surprised?
When do we acknowledge the murder of this industry and launch a non-BS effort for other industry.
The Getty government tried that during the 1980s and lost its shirt in the process. It encouraged diversification of industry into other fields, such as electronics, but many of the companies that it supported turned out to be financial sinkholes. I know that for a fact as I worked for two of them, had a close association with another one, and knew about a few more from other sources.
Those companies were poorly managed, had no idea on how to properly use their money, and were frequently in hock. They would have gone belly up if the provincial government hadn’t bailed them out from time to time.
In one case, a former employer of mine, the government finally wised up and stopped pouring money into it. It was eventually sold to a private owner and, I think, was sold again after that. I’m sure the last owner bought it as a tax write-off but, by then, I has long gone so I wasn’t affected by what happened.
We live in a country where killing industry is an industry in itself. Nothing surprising here.
The truth of what is happening to the West has been well known for decades. Reform tried to right the ship and was rejected. IMHO I think many Western Canadians think some white knight will appear and raise us up to our ‘rightful’ spot in confederation. It isn’t going to happen. The carpetbaggers can move back east but what else is new?
Western Canadians talk a big story but don’t back it up. The simple things; education of the people about the true nature of the Western ripoff is not really happening, CPP still exists in the West, the RCMP still exist in the West. The most serious issue in the West is the flight of capital and human assets that have and are leaving. Losing this will allow the easterners to pick at the bones at will. There will be no level of expertise to crow about what they are doing. One might argue why easterners would destroy the ‘golden goose’? They will because the West was a serious threat to their power. Better to destroy that and take a little less in the process.
Are Tim McMillan and Kate McMillan just namesakes, or is there any kind of relation?
I am aware that Turdo is controlled by the Laurentian elite, but his best buddy, Butts is the rabid greenie, behind the Libs policies, and lets face it, Turdo isn’t intelligent enough to dream up the “Murder of the oil industry” appropriately titled, by Alecincgy. They have effectively isolated the oil sands from access to ports, pipes, and customers, and the US is now also oil independent. As stated by CT, the West was a threat to the East, power wise, and money wise, they couldn’t allow that. Using the perceived threat to the climate change environment excuse for cover, they have effectively weakened the West as a whole, and have put thousands out of work, and they don’t give a damn. Total, is getting out because lets face it, any investment into the Canadian oil sector now, is just throwing money away. Thus adding to the decline and fail, of a once strong and positive job producing industry! Total being French owned, would also be a detriment as well. I doubt that it’s because of the Paris climate accord, it’s the money loss, always follow the money, or in this case, the loss of the money and profits, is making Total cut and run. All part of the deliberate decline and eventual death of the West!
That wecollectively have front row seats for! Investing in beer and popcorn stocks would be the best option.
This time it looks like the Trudeaus’ will get there wish to destroy the west. I hope daddy is proud of his disgusting son. Let’s get out of this d….n country.