“There is no work here. And it’s not because there’s no oil here. It’s because you are systematically – the province and the federal government – destroying this industry.”
h/t Ken (Kulak)
I Want A New Country
… why oil-rich Alberta doesn’t have a massive sovereign wealth fund like Norway, consider this.
Alberta is a province, not a country. Ergo, we don’t get to keep all the wealth we generate in this province. Not even close.
I realize this runs counter to the preferred narrative in Canada, where politicians and media types insist Alberta either “put all its eggs in one basket” by failing to diversify its economy (hello Christy Clark), or that Albertans “spent like drunken sailors” during boom times.
Sure, there’s some truth to those arguments. But the far bigger reason why Alberta isn’t rolling in filthy lucre is that we are part of a federation called Canada.
Galt Oil, Inc.
In the past, I’ve written that I wished I owned all the oil companies in the world, because I’d call a news conference to announce my retirement. They’ve started to take my advice.
Truckers For Pipelines
More here.
I Want A New Country
How long has this been going on for now? 40 years?
As concern grows among workers and politicians over Alberta’s embattled energy sector, a massive rally got underway in the city of Grande Prairie, Alta., to support the resource industry and to call for pipelines to be built.
Sure. Things are bound to turn around any day now.
Dead Rose Country
Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP government argues it has done plenty to object to Bill C-69.
The facts state otherwise.
She was always faking it.
Dead Rose Country
Brian Zinchuk: Notley’s $350 million doesn’t come close to buying 7,000 rail cars and 80 locomotives
My math shows, on the low end, a price tag of $945 million for new rail cars alone. Coupled with ~$309 million for locomotives, and you come in at $1.254 billion. At the high end, it would be $1.484 billion for cars, totalling $1.793 billion including locomotives. Either way, it’s a heck of a lot more than the $350 million announced. Unless she’s leasing, Notley’s $350 million is only one-third to one-fifth of the money required to buy all these new trains, and no consideration has been given to staffing or operational costs.
Math is hard.
“Lewis Carroll is alive and well, and writing Canada’s energy policy.”
… the combination of regulations and procrastination, surreal taxation, endless court battles, and insensate opposition by brigades of wild-eyed foundations and NGOs can be said to constitute a “policy” only in the way that tumbling off a precipice to splatter on the rocks below might be described as “finding a neat shortcut to the valley.”
h/t Nancy
They Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
The fossil-defueling of the planet has been postponed indefinitely;
The Kobe project is one of more than 30 new power stations being planned or built by Japan that burn coal — the dirtiest and most polluting fossil fuel and one which is being phased out by some 30 governments around the world. [..]
Japanese government officials justify their reliance on coal by citing cost, security of supply concerns and the need for a diverse energy mix. Coal power plants are “necessary” because “the resource is cheap and more economical with scale,” Shogo Tanaka, director of the Energy Strategy Office at METI, told the Nikkei Asian Review.
They’re acting as though they want the lights to stay on.
Galt Pipelines, Inc.
One of the largest foreign holders of Canadian energy stocks says investors are turning away from the country, frustrated over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s failure to get pipelines built to ease a record discount for oil-sands crude.
In a letter to the prime minister, Darren Peers, an analyst and investor at Los Angeles-based Capital Group Cos., warns investors and companies will continue to avoid the Canadian energy sector unless more is done to improve market access.
“Capital Group’s energy investments are increasingly shifting to other jurisdictions and that is likely to continue without strong government action,” Peers wrote in a letter dated Oct. 19. “I hope that your government will be even more proactive in securing market access which will assure the competitiveness of Canadian energy companies.”
Related. The price of Western Canadian Select closed at $13.46 US a barrel on Thursday. Meanwhile, the American benchmark price, West Texas Intermediate, closed at $56.49 US.
h/t Ken (Kulak)
Galt Pipelines, Inc.
The CEO of Calgary-based Encana Corp. is at no risk of losing his Texas accent.
With the $5.5 billion purchase of Texas-based Newfield Exploration Co., Doug Suttles says he envisions a “headquarterless” company. That transformation may have actually begun in March when he moved house to Denver.
Related: Enbridge Suspends Dividend Reinvestment and Share Purchase Plan
I don’t want my country back.
I want a new one.
Galt Pipelines
Calgary-based Crescent Point Energy is cutting their workforce by 17%.
Now, Suncor Energy has announced that any expansion of crude production has been put on hold.
Related.
I remember when the NDP supposedly fought for working people. The steel toed set. Truckers, pipefitters, welders, crane operators, rock & tunnel and miners. Oh & the other unions that rely on a strong economy like teachers & nurses. Blue collars take heed: you’ve been abandoned. https://t.co/zTPdEW8DAh
— Kris Sims (@kris_sims) September 4, 2018
h/t RALD
Showing Up To Riot
Good job.
This careless government has careened from one bungle and self-manufactured crisis to another. From India, to Saudi Arabia, to Washington this week, it’s either catch-up, incompetence or peacock risibility. And as Ms. Freeland and her team pulled sophomore “all-nighters” to save free trade and appease the angry god in the White House, dear Alberta learned there was no way they will be able to trade their oil whatever way NAFTA goes.
Galt Pipelines
Federal Court of Appeal quashes construction approvals for Trans Mountain, leaving project in limbo
In the decision released Thursday, and written by Justice Eleanor Dawson, the court found the National Energy Board’s assessment of the project was so flawed that it should not have been relied on by the federal cabinet when it gave final approval to proceed in November 2016.
The certificate approving construction and operation of the project has been nullified, leaving the project in legal limbo until the energy regulator and the government reassess their approvals to satisfy the court’s demands.
In effect, the court has halted construction of the 1,150-kilometre project indefinitely.
Now, the Liberal government is the owner of a proposed pipeline project that could be subject to years of further review.
Well, then.
Canadian Oil Crisis Continues As Prices Plunge
Canadian oil producers are once again suffering from a steep discount for their oil, causing the largest spread between Canadian oil and WTI in years.
Western Canada Select (WCS) recently fell below $40 per barrel, dropping to as low as $38 per barrel on Tuesday. That put it roughly $31 per barrel below WTI, the largest discount since 2013.
The sharp decline in WCS prices is a reflection of a shortage of pipeline capacity. Much of the talk about pipeline bottlenecks these days focuses on the Permian basin, and the unfolding slowdown in shale drilling, which could curtail U.S. oil production growth. But Canada’s oil industry was contending with an inability to build new pipeline infrastructure long before Texas shale drillers.
If only….
There was some technology that allowed oil to travel in a much safer mode of transport.
“Shale country is out of workers. That means $140,000 for a truck driver…”
Canadasplain to us again, O Holy Pundits, about why we in the West are supposed to rally behind our Loser Leader…
Shiny Pony Pipelines, Inc.
They can’t enforce our laws, but they can buy the world! And piss off an entire nation in the process – media included. Check out the wording of this CBC headline;
A good morning to tune in to John Gormley for prairie reaction. Click the Listen Live button at top right.
Timing is everything.
Auditor General releases spring reports, including examinations of Phoenix pay system, programs for Indigenous well-being:
"I believe right now is a critical moment when the fed. gov't needs to reflect on what I call incomprehensible failures." pic.twitter.com/y9gvbQeC7M— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) May 29, 2018
Galt, Incorporated
The president and chief executive of Cenovus Energy warns investor confidence in Canada will erode further if the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion doesn’t get built.
“Canada really is at a crossroads,” Alex Pourbaix told BNN Bloomberg in an interview Thursday.
“This country has extraordinary oil resources, the third-largest resources in the world, and a track record for responsible development,” Pourbaix said. “And I think right now the international community – and particularly the investment community — is watching.”
But ‘going Galt’ isn’t just for pipelines anymore.
Car2Go, the prominent car-sharing company that claims 80,000 users in Toronto, will stop operations in the city on May 31, it announced Thursday in a release.
The company blames city hall, saying a new free-floating car-sharing pilot program passed by council in April after months of debate is overly restrictive and renders its service “inoperable.” Specifically, it called the parking permit fees of about $1,500 per vehicle “unprecedented.”
“City councillors have passed a heavily restricted pilot that ultimately weakens mobility options for Torontonians,” said Car2Go North America chief executive Paul DeLong in the release. […]
Mayor John Tory issued an email statement accusing Car2Go of choosing “confrontation over collaboration with city council.”
Maybe he should just sue them back into business.
h/t Raid, Dan T.
Galt Pipelines, Inc
A month after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped in to resolve the impasse between British Columbia and Alberta over the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline his government has little to show for its efforts.
Trudeau’s offer to compensate Kinder Morgan — the parent company of the pipeline — for any financial losses resulting from the opposition of the B.C .government to the project has yet to be taken.
With our money.