CanPol - Alberta edition

[KrazyHorse]

Are you really surprised that comments on a newspaper story are ****ing retarded?

Read the CBC.ca comments some time...

[Asher]

I read them all. They're pretty awesome.

[Wezil]

It's not just AB that hates Toronto. Everybody hates Toronto.

[Fake Boris]

Are you really surprised that comments on a newspaper story are ****ing retarded?

Read the CBC.ca comments some time...

QFT. If I had a drug addict laying around I'd keep her to be my b1tch.

[Asher]

Let's just keep jacking up the royalties. LOWEST IN THE WORLD I TELLS YA.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Alberta+warned+royalty+changes+needed+catch+with+other+provinces/2289027/story.html

Alberta warned oil and gas royalty changes needed to catch up with other provinces

CALGARY - If the Alberta government doesn't make specific, targeted and permanent changes to its oil and gas royalty regime, it will continue to lose out to British Columbia and Saskatchewan, a junior oil and gas investors conference heard Monday.

Chris Feltin, a senior research vice-president for Macquarie Capital Markets, said Saskatchewan and B.C. drilling rates are near five-year averages while Alberta's is far below that level, clearly because of the differences in government levies.

"Alberta really took a hit . . . in 2009," he said.

"We'll chalk that one up to the royalty changes that we saw and the new royalty framework that just didn't make those plays competitive anymore with what was going on elsewhere in North America."

Feltin acknowledged that low gas prices have hurt the industry and pointed out that a curtailment of production and recovery in prices anticipated by many, including Macquarie, has not materialized.

That makes Saskatchewan's primarily oil plays look much better.

However, he added that the B.C. government's new royalty incentives put in place this year have greatly enhanced the economics for developers of its northeastern Montney shale gas play in spite of lower gas prices.

"There's a real opportunity for the Alberta government to step up and make some more pronounced and more permanent changes to the royalty structure here to make some of the more prospective players more competitive in the North American market."

According to data posted on the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors'website, there were 323 drilling rigs working in Alberta last week, compared with 550 in the same week of 2006. Saskatchewan had 124 versus 109 in 2006 and B.C. had 20 compared with 22.

In its second quarter update last week, the province said its deficit this year will likely be a record $4.3 billion as contributions from oil and gas royalties fall due to lower prices and less production.

Presenter George Fink, chairman of oil-weighted Bonterra Oil and Gas Ltd., told investors his company has been building an inventory of drilling prospects outside of Alberta. "If we have to move into other provinces, we have enough land that we can drill for about three years without drilling in Alberta," he said.

"We've felt a bit uneasy for the past couple of years from the standpoint of being at the mercy of this particular government and the short-term views they take sometimes so we had to prepare to switch if necessary."

He said his company is poised to immediately stop spending money in Alberta when the drilling incentives programs announced and extended earlier this year end in March 2011.

Ironhorse Oil & Gas Inc. is investing more heavily in oil these days, chief financial officer Rob Solinger said, but it is also planning its drilling to take advantage of Alberta's incentives.

He said Saskatchewan's nominal royalties on new wells give Ironhorse the chance to recover costs quickly and free up money to reinvest.

"Alberta needs a much more comprehensive solution to attract long-term investment capital so hopefully they get it right with the competitiveness review that's supposed to make an announcement in the next three to four months."

Gary Leach, executive director of the sponsoring Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, said attendance at the fall conference is stronger than at last year's and reflects a modest rebound in confidence due to higher oil prices.

[notyoueither]

"There's a real opportunity for the Alberta government to step up and make some more pronounced and more permanent changes to the royalty structure here to make some of the more prospective players more competitive in the North American market."

No, thanks.

[Asher]

The sense of entitlement you display is somewhat alarming.

[notyoueither]

I don't want to see BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan compete to give the resources away.

[Asher]

The world is bigger than that. The competition is global. You don't seem to understand that by making Alberta uncompetitive, the royalties you get are precisely zero. And that's with soaring unemployment and lowered tax revenues. But yes, you then keep the resources in the ground nice and safe.

[notyoueither]

Alberta should institute a sales tax for the purposes of financing government.

What we have been doing is pillaging the province to stuff our own gourds and screwing the future.

[Asher]

Alberta should institute a sales tax for the purposes of financing government.

What we have been doing is pillaging the province to stuff our own gourds and screwing the future.

Yes. Why don't we just kick all the oil companies out altogether?

If you don't want to live in a province that sells its resources, move elsewhere. You do not seem to comprehend just how many jobs in Alberta depend on resource extraction that you want to **** over.

[notyoueither]

The world is bigger than that. The competition is global. You don't seem to understand that by making Alberta uncompetitive, the royalties you get are precisely zero. And that's with soaring unemployment and lowered tax revenues. But yes, you then keep the resources in the ground nice and safe.

How much Russian gas is burned in the US?

[Ben Kenobi]

Awesome.

Thanks NYE. Now the BC government has a chance to catch up.

I hope every albertan thinks the way you do.

[notyoueither]

Yes. Why don't we just kick all the oil companies out altogether?

If you don't want to live in a province that sells its resources, move elsewhere. You do not seem to comprehend just how many jobs in Alberta depend on resource extraction that you want to **** over.

Where did I say anything like this?

[notyoueither]

Awesome.

Thanks NYE. Now the BC government has a chance to catch up.

I hope every albertan thinks the way you do.

Woohoo! You've got 20 rigs. Your sure a big deal now, boy!