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 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.
Brian Zinchuk on Evan Bray Show: Coal, CO2 and what it means for oil production, wind in Alberta, Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion, and a pile of listener calls. (Link is fixed)
Op-Ed: Kaase Gbakon: A (Hungry?) Tiger in Your Tank, Part 1
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.
You learn something new every day. I ALWAYS thought Saskatchewan’s largest industry was agriculture. How could it not be? Well, at least as measured by GDP, I was wrong. It’s actually oil and gas.
(I’ve been writing about this for almost 16 years. You think I would have clued in on something like that?)
While voicing its opposition to federal oil and gas emissions caps, Saskatchewan goes to Houston to seek investment
Saskatchewan’s letter to Guilbeault opposing oil and gas emissions cap.
Saskatchewan’s letter to Guilbeault opposing Methane 75 emissions.
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).
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
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.”
NDP MP Charlie Angus wants to shut down all oil and gas advertising.
In a move that would effectively destroy media like Pipeline Online, EnergyNow.ca, BOE Report, Daily Oil Bulletin and more, Timmins-James Bay NDP MP Charlie Angus on Feb. 6 proposed eliminating all advertising from oil and gas firms. “It is prohibited for a person to promote a fossil fuel, a fossil fuel-related brand element or the production of a fossil fuel except as authorized by the provisions of this Act or of the regulations,” the private members bill, which was just introduced and is not law, says.
Note, this was clearly endorsed by the national party and leader. There’s even a donation collection at the bottom of the press release.
Fines in the million dollar range, jail up to two years. This is what the NDP want of Canada. And I would be going to jail.
To quote Andor, “Fight the Empire!”
Danielle Smith asks ‘Is Canada Broken?’ in a video targeted at Steven Guilbeault’s environmental policies.
UPDATED: For seven days in a row, SaskPower saw wind generation hit zero for part of the day
The story originally said five days. SaskPower got back to me and noted the streak continued Jan. 7 and 8 as well. So that’s a whole week with wind flatlining. Total, complete flatline for part of the day, each day. How do you power the hospital my wife is an ER nurse at with zero power? Inquiring minds would like to know?
Also:
Weaker oil prices should bring some relief to consumers in 2024: Analysts
and
Quick Dick McDick: Saskatchewan Winterfront Regulation
Bonus points for Quick Dick’s instruction on how to use the box from a Pilsner 2-4 for a winterfront. Nothing says Saskatchewan like a Pil box on your pickup
It’s starting to get cold out. The sun was down and Alberta’s wind power generation fell to next to nothing last night – less than half a per cent capacity.
Meanwhile in Saskatchewan, we’ve had several days of minimal wind power generation.
In other news, they’ve started to bring in floating accommodations for the staff to build the Woodfibre LNG facility.
And Precision Drilling meets debt reduction goal, on track to repay $500 million by 2025.
It wasn’t that long ago North Dakota was the second-largest oil producing state. New Mexico has since eclipsed them, and the money is rolling in. What to do, what to do? (Gee, what could we do with more oil production?
Meanwhile, German farmers aren’t taking too kindly to carbon taxes on diesel. But how are they supposed to save the planet and feed the people, too?
Saskatchewan’s Year in Energy: Premier Scott Moe, 2023: Full Interview
If you didn’t have a chance to see this interview posted in four pieces before, here is the full year-end interview between Premier Scott Moe and Pipeline Online editor and owner Brian Zinchuk
Also, Premier Scott Moe’s social media folks posted the Pipeline Online story about the carbon tax on Saturday:
Saskatchewan families can say so long to paying the carbon tax on home heating beginning on Monday!https://t.co/y2ZC7fLaSN
— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) December 30, 2023
That bill there is directly from my father’s Jan. 2023 bill, when the carbon tax was still $50 per tonne. In April, it’ll be $80 a tonne. Without getting into too much detail, the shop that was connect to his natural gas is no longer. Thank God.
It was rather entertaining to read some of the comments, like suggesting my 80-year-old father should pay for upgrading the heating on his home (with only his meager CPP and OAS). Because every 80 year old will see a return in 10 years on such an investment. Certainly.
Another suggested he must be in a high income bracket – nothing could be further from the truth. Or that Trudeau’s climate action cheques must be enough to compensate.
True believers, those.
Anyhow, happy new year, everyone! And if you live in Saskatchewan and have SaskEnergy or SaskPower for home heating, happy no more carbon tax, on that, at least, year!
There are some days I think I’m kinda smart. But you get into a room, virtual or otherwise, with an Adam Waterman or a few others, and you realize how dumb you really are. Here’s what I mean.
Patchwork Podcast: Year-end roundup with Adam Waterman, Brian Zinchuk, Tracy Klotz and Kurt Price
If you don’t regularly watch Peter Zeihan, you should. He posted this on Christmas Day.
Weekend Watch: Why Venezuela is Preparing to Conquer Guyana
This video from YouTube channel RealLifeLore is the best explanation yet for why Venezuela is preparing to Conquer Guyana.
What’s really interesting are the North Dakota and Alberta/Canadian connections. As Venezuelan heavy crude production soared, US Gulf Coast refineries tooled up to handle it. But as their government essentially destroyed their economy, combined with US sanctions, the Canadian oilsands, and maybe, too, the Lloydminster region, benefitted by replacing that oil with our own..
It wasn’t that long ago, Crescent Point was pouring nearly all its capital budget into Saskatchewan, often employing over 20 drilling rigs in this province alone, and one in Alberta. My, how times have changed.
Its revised five year plan doesn’t even mention Saskatchewan by name.
The company has historically shown a pattern before it sells off an asset. It stops all drilling in that area months before a sale is announced. When I took Saskatchewan’s Minister of Energy for a tour west of Estevan, there wasn’t one rig drilling west of Estevan all the way to the Shaunavon area. When the photo above was taken in February, 2018, the company was running about 10 rigs in one township alone west of Estevan.
This is a key reason why I asked some hard questions of Premier Scott Moe about the lack of drilling activity in Part 2 of my year end interview with him (posted yesterday)
EDIT: Noting the lack of comments, let me provide some context: An enormous portion of Saskatchewan’s prosperity over the last 15 years, including its transition from a have-not to a have province, could be contributed to Crescent Point’s actions from 2007-2020. In 2008, they spent about a billion on land sales alone, then many, many more billions in the subsequent years developing that land through intense drilling efforts. For a while around 2012-ish they were Saskatchewan’s largest oil producer. Through a series of something like 30 mergers and acquisitions, the company built up a huge land base in this province, principally in southeast Saskatchewan. For several years, they were the top drilling oil producer in all of Canada, often employing more rigs than No. 2 and 3 combined. And usually all but one of those rigs were working in this province.
Now that is dramatically diminished. They’re milking Saskatchewan but spending substantially less here. I won’t say minimal, but it is a huge, huge, difference. So when they’ve found a new lover, as it were, in Alberta’s Duvernay and Montney plays, that might be good for them, but not so much for us left out here in the frozen barren wasteland of southeast Saskatchewan.
Get it now?
The old bumper sticker used to say something like, “Lord, please grant me another oil boom, and I promise not to piss it away this time.”
The "one more oil boom" bumper sticker is back. #Alberta pic.twitter.com/PgAcALrAgr
— Justin Giovannetti (@justinCgio) September 20, 2016
Well, oil prices were up in 2023, but oil drilling in Saskatchewan certainly didn’t reflect that. So Pipeline Online asked Premier Scott Moe what Saskatchewan is going to do about it.
Saskatchewan’s Year in Energy: Premier Scott Moe, 2023: Part 2 Oil Drilling, or Lack Thereof
Across the border to the west, The last coal-fired power station in Alberta will soon be out of coal. A few weeks ago, a notice posted to the the Alberta Electric System Operator website provided an update on its conversion to natural gas.
The end of coal-fired power in Alberta is nigh
Also, from Canadian Press:
Regulator denied Trans Mountain variance request due to pipeline safety concerns
And this one is a doozy. This is the Liberal government trying to cement into place carbon pricing so that even if the government changes, nothing can be done about it.
Feds sign first carbon contract for difference with Calgary-based Entropy
Energy, and the “energy transition” being forced upon Canadians by the federal government, is becoming the dominant story, affecting all our lives and everything we do. In his year-end interview with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Pipeline Online dives deep into the biggest energy issues of the past year.
This is Part 1: Fighting the Feds.
Part 2 will focus on addressing low oil drilling activity, despite decent oil prices.
Part 3 discusses the Clean Electricity Regulations and their impact, and widespread adoption of nuclear power.
Part 4 talks about lithium and helium development, and ends with Christmas greetings.