Depression style make work project in the oil patch

[farmaholic]

And I guess the taxpayers should pay for it instead of the people that made the mess?

Firstly, to me it's like the people who had the party refuse to clean up the mess. So they made money on the development but didn't, or refuse to, clean it up.

Secondly, haul what where? Level it, it will all become a medium to grow something on. Mother Nature has a way of taking things back. It may not be as good or productive as the ground that hasn't been disturbed around it but it will grow something(unless it is severely contaminated). Sad when the cost of remediation is so higher than just leaving it and paying the lease forever. Ahhh yes, the environmental pendulum, it may never come back to the mid-point.

[Guest]

ajl , oilpatch has already rolled back lots , and very few working at all . problem is the lower end of the patch wasn't making that much money considering they had to leave home for quite a bit at a time . looks to me that there is all lot of businesses and people around here that need to roll back ?? check out your local plumber , electrician ( oh and they can't send one guy always 2 together at double the price ) check out your local dealership @$130-150 / hr , plus a blatant robbery at the bottom of The bill called shop supplies of 10% . oilpatch Iis done and licking their wounds , time to start harping on these other pricks that are stealing from us

[bucket]

Caseih

Are you referring to the big government wage earners that just sent the taxpayers an 11 million bill on land flips?

Those guys don't need a wage reduction they need to be out of a job and maybe enjoying some of the food that Brad wall said ..." If you don't like prison food don't go to prison...."

Wonder if he mentioned that line to Bill Boyd yet?

[Guest]

yes bucket exactly , they need a shot of reality also . you are right . oil patch already received their shot , tho , and are hurting real bad . and a lot of people don't realize , the people at the bottom , doing the work were not making big money

[ColevilleH2S]

Lately news reports have clarified the wells they are talking about are orphan wells, as opposed to the paid-up non-producers, I thought they were talking about before.
I am under the impression there is either an industry fund, or bonds posted by oil companies when they drill to cover orphan wells. Why is the industry not following through on what they claim they would do in these situations.

[TOM4CWB]

"Secondly, haul what where? Level it, it will all become a medium to grow something on."

How is it fair to require me to try to grow a crop on a clay/field rock/gravel road with boulders croping up for the next century.

Compensation needs to be paid till the reclamation is done. The Gov/oil folks pulled out multi-millions... my farm got none of it. CPRail got the mineral rights... you can guess how that goes.

[ajl]

Money's gone Tom and it ain't comin back. Depression is here for most of us and it ain't goin away. There will always be a lucky few that escape. Better hope your one of them.

[TOM4CWB]

ajl,

The Gov/oil/CPRail are still pulling out oil and gas... horizontal and fracked gets the hydrocarbons out 50x easier than the old pin point method. And that is fine... someone needs to do the right thing and fix up the problem... while the money is still flowing out of the ground!

[blueversi]

Worked in oilfield reclamation for 10 years, the costs to reclaim are not astronomical for a straight forward reclaim, a lot of varieables though, amount of dirt needed to be moved, rocks to pick, shortage of topsoil etc. merely a drop in the bucket when compared to what goes into the drilling side and pipeline side of things. Add in contamination though and costs go up substantially to either dilute or mix off contaminants or haul to an environmental landfill. There is an orphan well fund setup to cleanup wellsites that were in the hands of now bankrupt companies, from my understanding current oil companies pay a percentage into this fund as well as gov't and it is doled out to clean up these "orphaned" sites.

[oneoff]

First I suggest that everyone get a few of their facts straight before actually misleading others and themselves as to what an "Orphan well fund " in Sask consists of.

Start with the Ministry of Econonmy website (aka old Energy and Mines).. try http://publications.gov.sk.ca/documents/310/84501-llr_summary.pdf to see how little is in the kitty.
Therein you will see that the two producers with supposedly half of Saskatchewan's oil production has exactly zero dollars on deposit for their potential future "orphan well" portfolio.

And look at the rest of the recognizable oil company names and you'll see similar zero dollar entries for almost every one of their oil wells and facilities (which is a separate kettle of fish). The sum total in the fund is not given; but its obviously peanuts. Someone else add it up And I maintain that given continuing depressed oil prices; there will be absolutely no oil industry left in Sask; because of the amounts mandated as due to the government coffers as deposits when net oil revenues over a 3 year period exceed the "base liability" of 55,500 abandonment costs per well.

A fact that has been obvious to anyone who looked at the situation at least 8 months ago.

Now that should be the beginning of the research needed to even express an opinion about the failed nature of all past governments who never recognized (or admitted) that suspending wells was the cheapest way to ignore isolation and cleanup of subsurface iron and spills that would almost never find future productive uses.

And I wager that not one person is going to be able to explain what an LLR is; what the implications of a moving 3 year average of "net income" divided by deemed remdiation of a SE Sask vertical well of some $55,500. With the end result that if that ratio is less than 1.0 then only then is a full remittance of that $55,500 immediately due through a deposit to the fund.

Now today I suffered through radio program and a plea from that service rig company president for a welfare program to fund his (and similar) businesses through slow times (and maybe even an oil company with a similar name that apparently doesn't have one cent on deposit with the orphan well fund.) Of course he maintained that there was no net cost to anyone when you considered that the spin offs and taxes collected would exceed the taxpayer contribution

So there is the formula to making money in government. Why not invest a few trillions in all kinds od projects and all financial problems go away.

What utter nonsense.

Twice it was mentioned greenhouse gas emissions would be solved from these 100 some odd orphan wells ...... (has even one of them now having any such problem?)

And then it sort of slipped out that the vast majority of the wells could indeed belong to companies that are not yet bankrupt.

Orphan wells with no owners are one thing. That issue lies on the doorstep of elected officials who were not smart enough to protect the public purse from those who shirked their total eventual inevitable clean ups and remediation. That doesn't mean that oil company financial interests were not looked after in much of past history.

Those hundreds of wells that are still "assets"" of yet viable companies are another matter. To give that gift of a minimum "$55,500" per suspended well is obscene and not fair to any in the industry who are required to still look after their liabilities as well as be entitled toenjoy any fruits of their business.

Perhaps our elected representative are not only incompetent; but poorly grounded and quite incapable to running a business in any manner except borrowing in the good times without recognizing that things get the toughest during downturns when saddled with debt.

All marks of poor business acumen.