TransCanada cancels Energy East Pipeline

[chuckChuck]

Did any of you guys actually read BENJAMIN DACHIS article from the CD Howe institute? Did you look at the graph posted by Helmsdale that clearly showed that the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has cut the projected growth in oil sands production because of low prices? There is s a good chance Energy east will not be needed.

All the rest of your blather about the end of the country etc. is just politics and hot air.

Klause you think you know everything and your smarter than everyone else. But I have two words for you, Norway and Statoil. Norway has a trillion dollars saved from their energy resource boom.

What do we have for savings? **** all, except some of the most expensive to produce oil reserves in the world that could become a stranded asset as the world moves toward a carbon less future.

[chuckChuck]

http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/terence-corcoran-economic-reality-killed-the-energy-east-pipe-dream-and-thats-good

Terence Corcoran: Economic reality killed the Energy East pipe dream — and that's good
Terence Corcoran: It was a specious play for support as a national economic champion, the Bombardier of energy, layered on top of the original global energy superpower dream
Albertans may cry foul and accuse Justin Trudeau of abandoning the province by shafting Energy East with regulatory overkill but most such commentary should be dismissed as political games,
October 5, 2017
9:52 PM EDT

Last Updated
October 6, 2017
7:27 AM EDT

Dreams and fantasies die hard, especially ones that have little or no basis in reality. Many of us may imagine ourselves as sports stars or corporate CEOs or Nobel scientists, but we all must come to terms with who we really are and the circumstances of our lives. Few of us are the next Jose Bautista or tomorrow’s Angelina Jolie.

So it is with nations whose people must at times learn that their national destiny is not as they once imagined. Canada is one such nation and Energy East is one of those times.

TransCanada Corporation’s decision to terminate the Energy East pipeline to ship oil from Alberta to the East coast and beyond means that Canada must now seriously begin to give up on what may always have been an impossible dream. Canada is not and may never become a global energy superpower.

The political and environmental fevers unleashed by the termination decision should not be allowed to dominate the debate over Energy East, a project that maybe looked somewhat feasible when political circumstances were different and oil was trading at $120 a barrel.

Albertans may cry foul and accuse Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of abandoning the province by shafting Energy East with regulatory overkill. “It’s a shameful moment in Canadian history, an attack on Alberta,” said one Alberta political leader.

Environmental activists may claim victory for the climate and the success of their ignoble campaigns. “Another one bites the dust,” joyfully tweeted U.S. anti-pipeline activist Bill McKibben.

Most such commentary should be dismissed as part of the political games that will be played for partisan political reasons or to score green propaganda points. What really happened is a different matter.

The reality is that Energy East may well have been an unrealizable national project from the start. It grew out of a set of circumstances that were temporary and in the belief that those circumstances would help Canada fulfil its destiny as a state superpower on the world energy market.

The “global energy superpower” mantra was widely promoted by the Harper Conservatives and became part of the promotional backdrop for a Energy East pipeline that would take Alberta’s oil sands production 4,600 kilometres and all the way to China or India via Quebec and New Brunswick.

Whether that was ever seriously possible or not, it became part of Canada’s big-stick bluster in its dealing with the United States. When former U.S. President Barrack Obama waffled on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to move oil from Alberta to Texas, Canadian political and business leaders began playing what they must have believed was a reasonable game of hardball: If Obama doesn’t green light Keystone XL, Canada will take its oil elsewhere.

The peak of Canadian energy superpower arrogance came when Prime Minister Harper delivered these words in a 2014 speech: “We know that the United States is unlikely to be a fast-growing economy for many years to come,” Mr. Harper said. “We’re in a globalized economy.” Canada doesn’t need you stinkin’ Americans and we can export our oil somewhere else. No problem.

When oil traded at $120 a barrel, the economics of Energy East may have added up. But by the time TransCanada got around to announcing the pipeline in October, 2014, the price of oil was already streaming down through $85 and heading for $40. A feasibility study by IHS in 2015 estimated that the cost of piping oil from Alberta to New Brunswick/Quebec to be $16 per barrel. Exports to India or wherever could add another $2 to $4. Pretty soon half the $40 market price would be consumed by shipping costs.

It's a good bet that, even with full regulatory approval, Energy East would still look like a long-term investment loser

At the same time, Energy East’s oil source, the oil sands, was being overtaken by new technology. As early as 2011, shale gas and shale oil technology was expected to shake up the global oil and gas market. U.S. energy economist Daniel Yergin called it “the shale gale.” Expensive conventional oil was at risk, the oil sands even more so.

Another industry report warned in 2011 that Canada’s oil sands producers are “operating in a narrow financial window” that is shrinking. Canada, it said, needs an oil price floor between $65 and $95 “to justify such long term, capital-intensive investments. Oil markets have rarely maintained such stability.”

These business risks have long overshadowed the political and environmental risks, real or imagined, that have dominated political and regulatory debate in recent years.

It’s a good bet that, even with full regulatory approval, Energy East would still look like a long-term investment loser without some confidence that oil prices would stabilize at something like $100 a barrel.

Another reason to doubt the viability of Energy East was the nationalist hype that surrounded the project. The pipeline, TransCanada said, was a national infrastructure project that would liberate Canada from the mythical burdens of imported oil. “Canadians want to choose where we get the oil we need,” said a company headline promoting a poll result. As a result of imported oil, $35-million “was leaving Canada each day.” As if that matters.

It was a specious play for support as a national economic champion, the Bombardier of energy, layered on top of the original global energy superpower dream. Neither survived economic reality, which is good. That’s how Canadians should assess the decision to kill Energy East.

[Klause]

Did any of you guys actually read BENJAMIN DACHIS article from the CD Howe institute? Did you look at the graph posted by Helmsdale that clearly showed that the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has cut the projected growth in oil sands production because of low prices? There is s a good chance Energy east will not be needed.

All the rest of your blather about the end of the country etc. is just politics and hot air.

Klause you think you know everything and your smarter than everyone else. But I have two words for you, Norway and Statoil. Norway has a trillion dollars saved from their energy resource boom.

What do we have for savings? **** all, except some of the most expensive to produce oil reserves in the world that could become a stranded asset as the world moves toward a carbon less future.

Right on!



We have **** all. Imagine how big Alberta's sovereign wealth fund could be if instead of giving the rest of the country equalization payments they would have put all that into their own fund.


We can't so that though because this is Canada... Where the good of the majority trumps the accomplishments of a few.

Western Canada has been taken advantage of since confederation.

Would you like me to post the video where Trudeau says a PM from the west is always bad? Or the story of how western provinces had no right over their own resources for half a century.



I don't know it all. Far from it. I'm a student of the world. However unlike you I've seen this cycle play out once in my lifetime... And studied many more.


It's liberals like you who don't understand societal and human nature - that have their heads in the sand telling the rest of us how smart and enlightened you are - that are doomed.

[Klause]

By the way... Please stop talking about a carbon less future.


If you are living organism on Earth you are made of carbon. Your house built of wood or hemp or bamboo is made of carbon



Synthetic plastics aren't going anywhere. They are made of carbon.

Steel isn't going anywhere it's made with carbon and usually by burning carbon.

Oil demand is still rising.


From the IEA:

Global oil demand grew very strongly year-on-year in 2Q17, by 2.3 mb/d (2.4%). For 2017, we have revised upwards our growth estimate to 1.6 mb/d. OECD demand growth continues to be stronger than expected, particularly in Europe and the US. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are projected to slow US oil demand growth in 3Q17.

Also our production costs for oil sands crude is around $43 including capital costs...


The reason we are uncompetitive with the world is the same reason our grain production is uncompetitive... Extremely poor or non existent infrastructure to get it to tide water!

[newguy]

Can not imagine you are saying the like of a Trump understands society more.That would be just plain hilarious.

[Klause]

Can not imagine you are saying the like of a Trump understands society more.That would be just plain hilarious.

Trump is a fool... I used the word trumps in it's original meaning... Not in any way related to that Trump.. lol

[newguy]

Trump is a fool... I used the word trumps in it's original meaning... Not in any way related to that Trump.. lol

What I was saying Trump is an example of an extreme right politician views on society.Even a milder version is no longer acceptable in our diverse society.There were so many things that were being ignored with Harper cause all he wanted to do is lead his party and fund raise.Trudeau and his idealist ways thought he could fix the damages in a couple years but things move much slower than that in the real world.Better to try and fail than never try at all.

[furrowtickler]

It was the changes made to the regulatory process 2 months ago that finally killled this project .
JT championed that

[furrowtickler]

If Sask and Alberta were a separate nation , we would be much like Norway .
I doubt Norway has to give money away to other nations in equalization payments.
That's a poor comparison chucky

[bucket]

Unfortunately you would still have the likes of bill boyd to deal with even if we were a separate nation....

But I believe the world would step up and take notice.


Farms and companies consolidate but governments don't..... why?


Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba and BC only need one premier or prime minister for what 10million people....