Author: Brian Zinchuk

Reaching for a million

Drill, Baby, Drill 13 Comments

When I interviewed Premier Scott Moe during the fall election, he surprised me by saying he would like to see this province reach 1 million barrels of oil production per day, up from its current ~450,000 bpd. In 2019, the Saskatchewan Party government put forward a goal of hitting 600,000 bpd by 2030.

That got me thinking – could this be done? How? What would it take?

And when he won the election and promised to get everyone a family physician, I immediately wondered, where would the money come from? How are we going to pay for all of these doctors and teachers?

And what would the benefit be if we did double oil production? The impact would be massive. Oil is already our number one contributor to GDP, greater than ag or potash. We can’t easily double either of those. But we can do something about oil.

North Dakota went from 90,000 bpd to over a million in a few short years. They have vastly superior geology in one way, but we have 30 billion barrels of heavy oil that they don’t have.

So I started asking around, and did a few interviews, the first of many.  I’ve been talking about this for a while, and now it’s time to put the pedal to the metal.

This will be an ongoing series, meant to explore just how Saskatchewan could double its oil production. Some might be naysayers. But maybe some will have some good ideas. I’m going to interview all the smartest people in the room over the coming months, even years, and keep pumping out stories. Premier Moe told me during my Christmas interview to “keep the heat on us,” and I intend to.

And in the end these stories are going to effectively be wrapped in a bow and plopped on the energy minister’s desk, with the ideas from the brightest people in the Saskatchewan oilpatch. Here you go, have at ‘er.

Reaching for a Million, Part 1: If Saskatchewan wants to pay for doctors and teachers, we need to drill, baby, drill

Most divisive and economically damaging PM in history

What He Said youmightbeinsaskatchewan 19 Comments

Brad Wall: Trudeau was the manifestly the most divisive and economically damaging prime minister of any in our history

Brad Wall: Trudeau was the manifestly the most divisive and economically damaging prime minister of any in our history

Bronwyn Eyre: The Green Slush Fund era may be finally over, but hands off our pensions!

Also, note that the planned first edition of the Pipeline Online Grimes Sales and Service Podcast is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Jan. 20. I’ll post more details as that comes up. Eyre will be my co-host, and for the first one we’re talking royalties and maybe a bit more.

Be careful what you wish for, Weyburn

Climate Cult 32 Comments

Brian Zinchuk: In opposing a wind project, Weyburn might want to be careful what they wish for

It was right around the time a man walked up to me, leaned close to my face and asked how much I had been paid to write a story talking about the benefits of the Weyburn wind project that I had an epiphany…

Brian Zinchuk: In opposing a wind project, Weyburn might want to be careful what they wish for

This is the column I referenced in those Weyburn wind stories. While I still very much question wind generation in a macro sense, I definitely had an epiphany when it came to NIMBY and the Weyburn wind project being presented by Enbridge. If an energy project can’t get built by an oil town, what’s going to happen when we want to start building reactors? Or a major pipeline is proposed?

And on Sunday, I stopped at the Bekevar Wind Facility. I posted a few videos from there, which I will eventually post as stories on the site. For the second time in a row, there was zero power being produced as not one turbine turned in the hour or so I was there. The wind was around 2-4 knots, according to weather reports.

Weyburn Wind, Part 4: acreages, wildlife, referendum

Climate Cult 6 Comments

Enbridge’s Weyburn wind project open house, Part 4: Acreages, wildlife, referendum

Here’s Part 4 of the Weyburn Wind saga, focusing on acreages, wildlife and referendum

You might be wondering why I’ve gone so deep into this open house. Here’s the thing – this has been the first opportunity I’ve had to really get into the development of one of these projects, and see and hear the arguments from both sides. Alberta just put its 50th online. Saskatchewan has nine. This would be the 10th. So it’s a chance to really get into the weeds.

The numerous stories I’ve written about wind power to date have almost been exclusively about their reliability or lack thereof, and their impact on a macro scale on grids, power pricing and the like. This development side is a totally different aspect.

Clean Electricity Regulations are actually a bait and switch; Weyburn Wind Part 2

Baiting the Right Climate Cult You Might Be A Liberal 10 Comments
Great Plains Power Station, Moose Jaw, on Dec. 17, its grand opening. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Here’s the story on Guilbeault’s updated Clean Electricity Regulations, and it includes an at-length discussion with SaskPower Minister Jeremy Harrison explaining why Saskatchewan is rejecting it.

Here’s the key thing: Other media are acting like this is a win – that the deadline has simply been punted to 2050. Well, I actually read through the regulations and realized it’s a bait and switch. In fact, the regulations include an impossible to meet emissions standard for anything that burns anything by 2035. Even if you put carbon capture on every single natural gas and coal power plant in Saskatchewan and Alberta, if the CCS behaves anything like Boundary Dam 3, you won’t get anywhere close to the new standard of 65 tonnes CO2 per gigawatt-hour. So the federal government slyly let people think they’ve punted, when really they haven’t punted at all. Like Lucy, they’re pulling the football away in 10 years and 12 days. (That’s the amount of time we have to build carbon capture on everything. And even if we do, it won’t be good enough. Good luck with that.)

Enbridge’s Weyburn wind project open house, Part 2: Enbridge’s opening statements

It’s as if I should change the name of the website to SaskPowerOnline.ca. Jeepers – this week is almost all power related.

Weyburn wind open house, Part 1

Climate Cult 21 Comments

Enbridge’s Weyburn wind project open house, Part 1: Setting the stage

It was a contrite Enbridge which presented a second open house in Weyburn for its planned 200 megawatt wind project, to be located east of the community. The project has seen several revisions, and Enbridge representatives repeatedly spoke about correcting mistakes and working with people affected by the proposed project.

Note: This story ended up being so massive, it needed to be broken up into several parts just to make it manageable and yet still allow a great deal of depth on a topic very important to Weyburn.

On top of that, there is a LOT going on in the power space right now, with the Tuesday release of the revised Clean Electricity Regulations and on the same day as the grand opening of the Great Plains Power Station at Moose Jaw which Pipeline Online attended. There’s a lot of catching up to do, so please bear with me. Here’s Enbridge’s Weyburn wind project open house, Part 1: Setting the stage.

I’ve never seen a multi-billion behemoth like Enbridge be so apologetic for wanting to spend around a third of a billion around a community.

Enbridge folks said “apology” or “apologize” five times, and “sorry” twice. I checked my transcript.

I expect they still feel sore about losing Northern Gateway, where First Nations claimed Enbridge spoke to them like they owned the place. It was clear this was an entirely different approach.

Freeland resigns!

You Might Be A Liberal 101 Comments

Does this imply she has no confidence in Trudeau? Her letter says he has no confidence in her.

Watching CBC News Network is rather entertaining. The CBC is in full meltdown mode. For a bit there it looked like Rosemary Barton might issue a tear. Or maybe I was just seeing that through rose coloured glasses?
 

CBC

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigns from Trudeau’s cabinet

National Post

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigns ahead of economic update

Eastern bastards

Climate Cult 65 Comments

Holy mackerel! This story is well worth reading. The Churchill Falls deal between Quebec and Newfoundland was the most atrocious you could possibly imagine. On Thursday, a deal fixing that was signed.

Quebec and Newfoundland end one of the most bitter energy disputes in Canadian history over the horribly lopsided Churchill Falls deal. Quebec was getting power nearly free, and making billions off it while Newfoundland starved. No more.

FYI, Churchill Falls can produce more power than all of Saskatchewan, if every dam was full, every coal plant running full out, every wind turbine cranking and every natural gas plant humming. The deal that had been in place until 2041 would have had Quebec pay 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour until then. That’s effectively free. This changes all of that.

If Quebec and Newfoundland can make peace on this, maybe some day they’ll allow a pipeline through la belle province? Don’t bet your kids’ college fund on it.

 

Also:

Let those Yankee bastards freeze in the dark?

Ontario mulls U.S. booze ban as Trump brushes off Ford’s threat to cut electricity

That’ll go over well. The 10th Mountain Division will be invading the next day. Their home base is at Fort Drum, New York State. It’s within spitting distance of Kingston, Ont. So, good luck with that.

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