Alberta Royalty Review = The death of the Alberta oilpatch
 

You can go here to express your concerns with or without sharing your name.

http://www.alberta.ca/home/598.cfm

This will not just hurt the oil and gas industry but every last piece of business in Alberta.

This will cause oil companies to drop drilling activity and in turn will hurt all the services all the way down to hotels restraunts and well even our hobby as people will have less cash in their pockets due to a serious downturn in the econmy.

Go to the site, express your concerns, talk to your MLA.. lets get this thing killed.

Or get some of the billions back fr the greedy Multinationals who profit by raping the land...

-not that I really believe strongly that way, but a review is in order.

I think its about time, it won't change anything, they will still make obscene amounts off of oil, they always do. Alberta's economy needs to slow down anyways. For innumerable reasons. Ever wonder why despite rising costs of everything, labor, production materials etc, oil companies post record earnings every quarter?

The new royalty structure if passed will do the same to Alberta that the NEP did in 1980. Depressed economy soaring interest rates, job losses. This is not a wise move. I don't just say that becuase I am paid by big oil but as a Calgarian and an Albertan I can see the disater looming. Last October we were crushed by the income trust taxation, this october we have the potential to be crushed on the royalty review.

For example, EnCana put out a press release this morning stating that they will cut their 2008 activity by $1 Billion (roughly 30-40% decrease) if the royalty structure is changed. How does this increase revenue to the province of Alberta and it's citizens.

I quote : "The proposed changes will have immediate and long-term impacts on working Albertans. The magnitude of the expected capital reductions is the tip of the iceberg. In the short term, these changes would mean extensive job losses across the industry. There will be fewer wells drilled, completed, pipelined, operated and serviced. There will be fewer hotel bookings, vehicle purchases, landowner lease payments, restaurant meals and lower property taxes in the areas where EnCana operates, and that is just about every corner of Alberta, from the smallest towns to the biggest cities. More importantly and over the long term, well-paying, permanent jobs will not materialize across Alberta."

The full press release can be found here - http://www.encana.com/investors/news...950052710.html


Anyone who thinks this is a good thing for Alberta does not understand all the facts IMHO.

I don't buy into that
 

You'd think that big oil would just close up shop and go somewhere else to get their oil - cheaper.....where would that be?!? Iraq? It is a bit hard there with a civil war. Iran? Haven't started that war yet......

It is not going to dry up the Alberta Oilpatch. Big Oil has made record profits - and it is only fair that it is time to review the royalties paid - they can well afford it. Only thing that would dry up the oilpatch is lack of demand and that would be if the US suddenly figured out another source of energy.

a bit of fearmongering going on methinks.

greedy people like to stay greedy (not people on here, I am meaning the ones in the big chairs...unless YOU are THEY! :( )

Fear mongering from the oil companies? Bah...
I sneezed while flying over the middle east....oil shot up 20 bucks a barrel

Encana thinks quite a lot of themselves does it not. Do you work for Encana? Maybe they should save money instead of building useless skyscrapers. An I Quote!!!

Encana's webpage
Encanas second quarter cash flow exceeds 2.65 BILLION (US) or $3.33 Per share up 55%....

They will be like shell, hire "consultants" to find nice ways of firing people, resulting in skyrocketing shareholder prices and a bonus to the ceo or board of directors, which would have paid the salaries of those laid of for 20 years.

If it were a perfect world this would be a good thing. More money put back into communities and infrastructure. However, in reality it's going to mean less money in the pockets of people and more money wasted by our government as usual.

I actually do work for EnCana as a consultant :)


What will happen is that EnCana will invest their money into other areas, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Wyoming, Colorado. Wouldn't we rather keep this work in our own province?