[Kokomoxcv]

Shouldn't Canadians love Big Oil and all the money it brings them? If I lived in Canada I would be all over politicians who support Big Oil.

I am not so blinded as to oppose cashing in on a major resource, but I question Harper's management of the question.

The sensible thing to do would be to take the money and use it to fund a transition to an oil independent economy. The Conservatives obviously won't do this, as this it would accelerate the worldwide transition and reduce our profit window. Instead they're busy sacking environmental regulations in poisoned omnibus bills, GOPing Canadian politics.

Yep, this is really what we need now: American Congress level politics

[Spalax]

Not only is the Kyoto protocol long gone, now they won't even meet the Copenhagen promise of 17% below 2005 levels:

Here's a newsflash: We wouldn't meet that level regardless of what Harper did.

The people who promised that were mentally retarded.

Let's resume the main points of our previous discussion:

1) Harper works directly for the oil lobby There's no point in discussing absurdity.

Harper represents his constituents whose interests are directly connected with the health of the energy industry. He is doing his job as an elected member of the legislature.

2) He probably honestly thinks that the energy sector is Canada's economic future, so it's not like he's doing it "without a reason" Only a Quebecker or someone similarly lacking in rationality would argue something otherwise.

3) The result is still that the only way to preserve the value of oil on the long term is to torpedo international agreements for as long as possible I think this is a stretch. More appropriately he's weighed the tradeoff between reducing GHG by 0.1% globally and torpedoing the strongest part of Canada's economy and decided only a moron would think it's a good thing to agree to nebulous agreements with no consequences for the world's largest polluters.

[poulaMahmah]

Of course the energy sector is Canada's economic future.

[aLZ9zKsO]

Does thinking in French screw up your brain or something?

It's not language-based, it's culture.

The people who are born in Quebec with a good head on their shoulders recognize that it's a not a place for intelligent people and move away (see KH).

The people left in Quebec are people who don't know any better. And they don't know any better because they're stupid.

[Aaron757]

There's plenty of intelligent Francophones from Quebec. They just no longer live in Quebec.

One of my best CS profs was from Quebec and a frog.

[Texdolley]

Boris is from Quebec. People from Quebec tend not to have the ability to think rationally.

Alberta directly makes money from oil -- which they see and are clearly jealous about.
Quebec indirectly makes billions of dollars each year in charity from Alberta due to oil, which they cannot comprehend.

Haha, you tard.

1) Quebec will soon make billions too from patches found in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence
2) What I criticized Alberta for, I'll criticize Quebec for
3) We have already established that Alberta's Quebec contribution to equalization was $1.4b, i.e. it's not "billions".

[scoundtrack]

Of course the energy sector is Canada's economic future.

Except it's not humanity's future.

[salomal-qask]

Except it's not humanity's future.

[JulieSmithdccd]

You clearly don't understand the energy sector if you think Quebec could ever get close to $1.4B a year in oil royalties.

[KasaBalak]

The problem with Gulf of the St. Lawrence is this: it's 1-2 billion barrels of oil at most and it's in an incredibly environmentally sensitive area. Quebec is throwing a hissy fit over Alberta mining frozen tundra while they are considering drilling for oil in an area known for its diverse wildlife, fishing, and tourism industry?

For comparison, Alberta has proven and currently technologically/economically viable reserves of about 180 billion barrels.

Quebec doesn't even qualify as a small-time player.

[KneefeZes]

The problem with Gulf of the St. Lawrence is this: it's 1-2 billion barrels of oil at most and it's in an incredibly environmentally sensitive area. Quebec is throwing a hissy fit over Alberta mining frozen tundra while they are considering drilling for oil in an area known for its diverse wildlife, fishing, and tourism industry?

For comparison, Alberta has proven and currently technologically/economically viable reserves of about 180 billion barrels.

Quebec doesn't even qualify as a small-time player.

Recent unexpected results have set hopes at around 30-40 billion barrels.

You are absolutely correct about the ecological factor. Hence "what I criticized Alberta for, I'll criticize Quebec for".

[Nemerov]

Recent unexpected results have set hopes at around 30-40 billion barrels.

It's horseshit.

[Loonakind]

I don't think so.

I do, and the industry does.

Who is claiming it's anything beyond 2?

If we're counting "what if" technological scenarios, then Alberta has something like 1.2 trillion barrels.

[PilotJargon]

Hydro-Quebec sold the rights to it in exchange for priority dues, so we wouldn't need to extract that much to get to $1.4b.

Lets assume a royalty rate of 14% for the ease of the math-- To get to 1,4 B you need to produce oil valued at 10 billion bucks per year. At 100 bucks a barrell thats 100 million barrells a year

That strikes me as a lot-- Obviously if your royalty rate is twice as high you need half as many barrells-- If the royalt is a net royalty of some form instead of a gross, then you might need additional production

I have not worked shale oil but I know that shale gas requires a lot of fractures which means very expensive wells which are less capable of maintaing a high royalty burden and remaining economic. Obviously the economics of oil are far superior to that of natyral gas but the fact remains that the plays must be competitive to be developped and the fact that Quebec is undevelopped emans that it lacks a lot of the needed infrastructure. Any ramp up will take time

[adunnyByday]

Recent unexpected results have set hopes at around 30-40 billion barrels.

You are absolutely correct about the ecological factor. Hence "what I criticized Alberta for, I'll criticize Quebec for".

The 30-40 billion figure is no doubt the total amount in the ground which is different from what can be recovered. For instance the Monterrey shale in California's central valley has perhaps 350 billion barrels in it but only about 3.5 billion recoverable because of the low permiability of the clay portion of the shale as well as the ultra hard chert nuggets mixed in with it. Fracking with the right solution (you'd need a different solution chemistry here compared to Colorado or Pennsylvania) could bring that recoverable amount up a whole order of magnitude but the state went over the top on restricting fracking so progress is very slow.

Anyway, so far Quebec looks to have about 2 billion recoverable which is nice and will no doubt help the local economy but it's pretty small. Hopefully the numbers will improve with more exploration but it's starting from a very small base.

http://dailyresourcehunter.com/calif...ale-oil-scene/
http://oilshalegas.com/montereyshale.html

[pataagusata]

And yet, no one cares about San Diego, Monterrey, California, etc.

[Pete789]

Does anyone know if Quebec's conventional off shore reserves are light or heavy, sweet or sour? If it's a light sweet then even a small quantity could be pretty valuable; less so if it's a heavy sour.

[bjacogaerllyo]

Sulfur content of the oil. In California the vast majority of the oil is heavy sour which means not only does it cost more to refine as you have to remove the heavy components (asphaltics, etc...) but you also need a whole series of additional refining steps to remove the sulfur. The sulfur makes the oil acidic so it eats up the refinery equipment pretty fast plus sour oil contains hydrogen sulfide gas which can kill people in about 20-30 seconds and even a few parts per billion in the air can make people sick over a mile away. It increases refining costs by a lot because you need additional steps and a lot of specialty equipment to get rid of it.

[Hftqdxpm]

Being overly dramatic never killed anyone.

[Vulkanevsel]

Whenever gas prices come back down again ...

You honestly believe this ?