Royalty Review

[OneMoreLastCast]

Thought you were mocking me MTB. No info what so ever

 

I'm nervous i can say that.

 

No, I was talking about Eddy our Premiere. I am just really disappointed in what I just watched. Our Premiere didn't say anything at all about the results, numbers wise, from the Review and there are a lot of people from both sides that are very interested, (and dependant).

 

Typical politician. That's one positive I guess. At least he is learning how to be one.

[SanJuanWorm]

I too am nervous. Oil and gas puts food on my table.

[LynnF]

Well I'm glad I wasted my time watching the Canucks falls to the Red Wings instead of watching the drizzle that came out of Ed's mouth. Apparently he's holding a news conference tomorrow where he'll spill the beans and give details. God...this is like ramping up for the finale of a season-long sitcom only to find out the real finale is a week later.

 

Now I know why I hate politicians.

[reevesr1]

I did not see anything about what the Premier said tonite, but I gather it was nothing. Wonderful. He probably has to sleep on it. He hasn't had much time to think about it, don't you know.

 

Edit:

Oh, and MTB, you can't go overseas! Who will show me where to cast? Who will stand between me and Max and make us both look taller?

[OneMoreLastCast]

Oh, and MTB, you can't go overseas! Who will show me where to cast? Who will stand between me and Max and make us both look taller?

 

I was standing in a hole!

 

Actually, once I get established, the contracts I've looked at would be 35 days in/30 days out. So eventually I would probably be around more.

 

Anyone else that has Oil Industry experience might want to check into it as well if it slows down here. They need people all over the world with experience and the money is actually better.

 

If I get any information for the "Workers" out there, I'll pass it on.

[reevesr1]

I was standing in a hole!

 

Actually, once I get established, the contracts I've looked at would be 35 days in/30 days out. So eventually I would probably be around more.

 

Anyone else that has Oil Industry experience might want to check into it as well if it slows down here. They need people all over the world with experience and the money is actually better.

 

If I get any information for the "Workers" out there, I'll pass it on.

You carry that hole around with you?

 

My bet is that you won't need to pass that info around. But I've lost on bets before.

[EdB]

That would be great Mtb. Maybe i could go over if i had to.

[wongrs]

guess we'll see the results tomorrow. no offense intended troutslayer. i just don't like people saying that 'thousands and thousands' of jobs will be lost without any data or analysis backing it up. it's heresay in my opinion until i see some calculations, data and facts.

 

i got the impression that special Ed hinted the royalty structure would be modified. hopefully it doesn't affect your (or anybody else's) job security. and hopefully your employer will still have their EnCana contracts and the economy will keep rolling along. i'm sure that's the royalty review panel is hoping for as well.

[EdB]

guess we'll see the results tomorrow. no offense intended troutslayer. i just don't like people saying that 'thousands and thousands' of jobs will be lost without any data or analysis backing it up. it's heresay in my opinion until i see some calculations, data and facts.

 

i got the impression that special Ed hinted the royalty structure would be modified. hopefully it doesn't affect your (or anybody else's) job security. and hopefully your employer will still have their EnCana contracts and the economy will keep rolling along. i'm sure that's the royalty review panel is hoping for as well.

 

 

no offense intended troutslayer

 

none taken buddy

[EdB]

how do i cut out just the part i want to quote? Tried a bunch of shizat and can't do it.

[Flytyer]

how do i cut out just the part i want to quote? Tried a bunch of shizat and can't do it.

 

 

Just click the "Reply" button on the right side

[EdB]

Just click the "Reply" button on the right side

 

Ya. but i see people are cutting out just a couple of words from the post and bringing up that as a quote. Did i once but can't figure it out now. Lost alot of brain cells in HIGH school

[OneMoreLastCast]

Until they get the results, there is no way to put any accurate numbers of jobs at risk. The numbers they threw out were estimates based on anyone from the "Rig Pigs" to the "Big Wigs" and they came up with approx. 30000.

 

Here's an example of some potential. Dependant on the review results, a Junior Oil Company that has a total employee count of 171 counting every person on the payroll, including the owners had a meeting with all 171.

They threw out the numbers from the review they could continue doing business at, and they informed everyone in the room that if the review comes out even .01% above, they would be closing their doors and moving shop. They told all 171 that they are welcome to come and would continue doing what they were at the new location outside Alberta.

The numbers were a lot lower than most would expect, but in order to make their business viable, they just could not operate otherwise.

 

This meeting was one of quite a few in the last week and they were done behind closed doors. No media or anything, so anyone that thinks it was fear mongering or Big Oil making Idle Threats is mistaken. This is real.

 

Luckily, I am basically a one man operation and I just use Sub-Contractors that also work as one person operations in a sense. Individually we'll have to fend for ourselves, but essentually if it doesn't go well, around 20 of us will be out of work in a round about way. There are too many people just like me that will be affected, but there is no way to put an exact number on it.

 

I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome from keeping my fingers crossed, and now they make me wait another day.

 

If all goes well....Party on the Banks of the Bow and I'm Buyin'!

[EdB]

Until they get the results, there is no way to put any accurate numbers of jobs at risk. The numbers they threw out were estimates based on anyone from the "Rig Pigs" to the "Big Wigs" and they came up with approx. 30000.

 

Here's an example of some potential. Dependant on the review results, a Junior Oil Company that has a total employee count of 171 counting every person on the payroll, including the owners had a meeting with all 171.

They threw out the numbers from the review they could continue doing business at, and they informed everyone in the room that if the review comes out even .01% above, they would be closing their doors and moving shop. They told all 171 that they are welcome to come and would continue doing what they were at the new location outside Alberta.

The numbers were a lot lower than most would expect, but in order to make their business viable, they just could not operate otherwise.

 

This meeting was one of quite a few in the last week and they were done behind closed doors. No media or anything, so anyone that thinks it was fear mongering or Big Oil making Idle Threats is mistaken. This is real.

 

Luckily, I am basically a one man operation and I just use Sub-Contractors that also work as one person operations in a sense. Individually we'll have to fend for ourselves, but essentually if it doesn't go well, around 20 of us will be out of work in a round about way. There are too many people just like me that will be affected, but there is no way to put an exact number on it.

 

I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome from keeping my fingers crossed, and now they make me wait another day.

 

If all goes well....Party on the Banks of the Bow and I'm Buyin'!

 

 

If all goes well....Party on the Banks of the Bow and I'm Buyin'!

 

 

I'm in

[kylegs]

Production of heavy oil is increasing and the incentives to initiate investment probably aren't needed, so royalties for heavy oil should probably should be higher than they are. However, they should have been implememnted slowly over the last 5+ years. Of course Ralfy was asleep at the wheel as usual and it will all come to a head tommorrow with what I'm guessing will be a good 5-10% dip in the market. I wish these guys would stop waiting and waiting and waiting and then making apparant snap decisions. Oh well, only 80-90% of my investments are in oil and gas. I guess it could be worse.

[DonAndersen]

Guys,

 

Bear in mind that when oil dropped from $35/bbl>$10.00/bbl. in the early 80's, Alberta did survive even though 80,000 people hit the bricks and most of them went "home". Peter Loughheed doubled royalties and he got hospitals named from him.

 

I sympathize with Stelmack. He got a real ugly problem delivered to him by Klien. More the 80% of the population believes that they are getting screwed. Politically, he's got a big problem.

 

And do you guys really believe that he can in a 20 minute address lay out the royalty regime for:

1] heavy oil - mineable

2] heavy oil - deep

3] conventional gas - shallow

- mid depth

- deep

4] conventinal oil -

5] CBM

 

Give you head a shake. Therre are few people that really understand royalities and you want a 20 second sound bite. Give me a break.

 

Don

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Everyone assumes the past includes a ton of wasted royalties. Others say slowing down or halting the industry for a while is a good thing. I have even heard people say we would of been better off not having produced any oil and gas until now.

 

I am not necessarily promoting Klein but face it folks, the past practices created an environment of exploration, innovation and prosperity that has brought us to this point today. Who knows how many wells may not of been drilled in the past had royalties etc. been more onerous. People always look to the present to complain and moan which means looking at the recent boom years for the oil patch. What they miss is the many, many bust years in which the patch stayed together and struggled to continue as an industry, weathering out the many storms to enjoy a nice stretch of weather.

 

A dollar earned by Albertans 10 years ago would be worthless if delayed and earned 10 years later. The value attained in the past is critical to our success in the future. Time value of money is key to understanding why we are so far ahead of the pack with our strong economy. Without all the past oil revenue we would not be a debt free province today. You can not fault the oil industry for past governmental decisions with regards to building roads, bridges and hospitals. They prioritized the debt and people voted for that.

 

I am very tired of all the oil company bashing that truly the media has put their own slant on the issue to sell papers and get people to tune into the news. The fact is oil companies have been around for years, have been an integral part of our culture, heritage and general lives. They provide great jobs, strong philanthropy initiatives (investing in charities and communities) and many, many trickle down benefits to all Albertans.

 

This should not be looked at by Albertans as a them against us fight but rather a cooperative effort to maximize value for everyone. The trickle down benefits to the economy are hugely under valued in conversations and articles.

 

We are now awaiting some actual facts tonight to see what will happen to the province.

[Castuserraticus]

It sounded to me like he's leaving conventional alone and going after heavy oil. changes will be phased in. That sounds much more reasonable than some of the stuff he spouted early on. Hopefully Ed learned from this to be more thoughtful before he speaks.

[reevesr1]

Guys,

 

Bear in mind that when oil dropped from $35/bbl>$10.00/bbl. in the early 80's, Alberta did survive even though 80,000 people hit the bricks and most of them went "home". Peter Loughheed doubled royalties and he got hospitals named from him.

 

 

Don

 

Don,

Easier to say if you weren't, or won't be, one of the 80,000.

 

Just because Alberta survived it once isn't really much of an argument for risking it again.

 

And my bet is not all politicians who had things named for them really did that good of a job. Don't know anything about Lougheed as I'm not from here, so the comment isn't directed towards him. Just a general observation.

[Castuserraticus]

Don,

Easier to say if you weren't, or won't be, one of the 80,000.

 

Just because Alberta survived it once isn't really much of an argument for risking it again.

 

And my bet is not all politicians who had things named for them really did that good of a job. Don't know anything about Lougheed as I'm not from here, so the comment isn't directed towards him. Just a general observation.

 

And the economy didn't gain strength until the mid 90's. It wasn't short term pain. Lougheed's royalty increase ended up going to drilling incentives to try and revive the industry.

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Don...

 

Having to fix what ain't broke is never an argument to break something. Making some adjustments that do no serious harm can be argued but the "harm" has to be quantified.

 

Slamming a successful economy has always proven to backfire. When the Bank of Canada tries to curb inflation for instance they make adjustments by a 1/4 basis points usually and never 2 full basis points. There is always a fine line between brain surgery and brain death! Let's try not to vote for the killing of jobs and prosperity. You may not be directly employed by the industry, but friends and family most likely are.

 

Cheers.

[DonAndersen]

Guys,

 

I was employed by the oil/gas industry for 45 years. Been through ups/downs. This ain't nothing new.

 

As far as fixing what isn't broke. In a survey down over 15 years ago, Alberta ranked 9th of 10 provinces in "standard of living" Things like beds/patient, teacher/pupil ratio, paved road/car etc. The only province lower was Newfoundland. Hate to think what a study might reveal today.

 

Don

[hydropsyche]

I was thinking to myself. "Who has more gonads? Ralph or Eddie?".

 

Ralph was presented with a review that said we could get $1bil/yr more without impacting the industry. He hide it from the public (which there should be an inquest about). Hey. Big oil will continue to get theirs and even invest more making the economy soar out of control. Ralph would look like a hero. Economic genius. But, if the public got a sniff of the review, he would be in the hot seat and have a tough decision to make. Kinda where Eddie is today.

 

I didn't respect Eddie much before this review. Now I do. He may not be as "Cool" as Ralphie, but he's got more guts (and morals) in my book. I opted out of Ralph's World last election. Eddie may pull me back in, no matter how the review turns out. I think his intentions are honorable.

[reevesr1]

Guys,

 

I was employed by the oil/gas industry for 45 years. Been through ups/downs. This ain't nothing new.

 

As far as fixing what isn't broke. In a survey down over 15 years ago, Alberta ranked 9th of 10 provinces in "standard of living" Things like beds/patient, teacher/pupil ratio, paved road/car etc. The only province lower was Newfoundland. Hate to think what a study might reveal today.

 

Don

 

Don,

I have lived in:

San Diego, Ca, Pocatello Id, Orlando, FL, Chicago, Ill, New Oreans, La, Houston, Tx, Waikiki, Ha, Grande Prairie, AB, Edmonton AB and now Calgary.

 

Now, my personal economics have certainly changed in that time frame from just starting out to 23 yrs of employment. I certainly cannot speak to the rest of Canada, but the standard of living here is as good as anyplace I've ever lived. Now, many of the issues you raised above, at least in Calgary, are directly attributable to explosive growth. The problem with reigning in growth is: what happens if you reign it in too much? Because the opposite of explosive growth is WAY worse.

 

I agree that ups and downs ain't anything new. They are going to happen regardless of royalties. I'm just saying that the Premier needs to be very careful with what he is messing around with. Raising royalties in an environment of lowering activity feels like a dangerous mix to me.

 

Hydro,

If he truly is doing this for altruistic as opposed to political reasons, then he has my respect as well. If he is convinced that the long term gain is worth the short term pain, then again, at least I can respect the opinion, though I may disagree with it. But I get the feeling that this is more politically motivated. If not, what was up with the political speech last night? He knows what he is going to do, but took the opportunity to milk it for a couple more news cycles. Face time, baby!

[bigbowtrout]

Watch the live feed at 3pm

 

http://events.onlinebroadcasting.com/abgov/102507/index.php