Depression style make work project in the oil patch

[ajl]

Premier Wall is pitching a proposal that Ottawa fund a program to clean up old oil wells and put unemployed oil workers back to work. The idea originally came from an oil field contractor. I though clean up of old oil field sites was covered but apparently not. Tax dough for the patch. Guess we can't let planes and auto get all of it. This depression is gunna last a long time.

[binthere]

yep. the moneys gone. land deals or slow oil patch let the tax payers cleaner up.

[bucket]

Hey I have an idea.

How about sending these oil guys out to farms and the government can help subsidize their wages.

Win for me. And a win for the worker.

I might be inclined to help him get a start.

[ColevilleH2S]

This plan probably has a few land owners around here quaking in their boots.

There is a huge pile of shut in wells in my area that haven't pumped in years. It is cheaper for the oil companies to pay surface leases to the landowners and maybe someday do something with the well, than it is to do a complete abandonment and remediation. This proposed program may make these cash machines disappear from the farmland. Thus lowering land values and municipal tax rolls.

[bucket]

Like Tom said....maybe there a reason why land is worth less in saskatchewan.....

Right back at you....

Just fun. Don't get to hung up on the message. Just enjoy the sarcasm.

[Oliver88]

Unemployed oil patch workers could definitely fill a shortage of farm labour.

Maybe a government sponsorship program could prop up a farm-oil patch labour program. (Similar to how governments would subsidize companies hiring Filipinos, Ukranians, etc in recent years when we had a shortage of workers.)

[TOM4CWB]

Bucket,

We have exactly the same problem here. If the old lease roads and well sites are to be put back using OHS and new environmental rules... the cost is astronomical. The old extraction site just behind my farm yard... would probably cost $1M to 'put the land back exactly the way it was' before the lease and lease road were built.

De-development... is very costly... and the consultants and de-construction contractors want to use fancy high cost equipment... and move to dirt, clay and gravel to some place where the road material won't reck more good land.

[bucket]

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

[ajl]

Big problem with this is that the people are expecting their old wages back. To make limited resources go further those huge oilfield salaries need to be roll back further. Huge government salaries need to be rolled back even more.

[TOM4CWB]

The money extracted with the oil... is long gone both in Gov. and the private industry.

Good luck with this ponzy like scheme... when the price of oil drops by 75 percent.

The Goose laid the egg... and now even the gold processing costs more than the feed to keep the golden goose alive!