The Koch boys seem to know a bad deal is a bad place to be stuck. Right now that bad place is Athabasca.
Once among the largest landholders in the oilsands, industrial conglomerate Koch Industries Inc. has sold off its upstream leases and abandoned licences in the heavy oil play, joining a stream of foreign companies exiting the bitumen-bearing formation.
Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries struck an agreement to sell thousands of hectares of land in the oilsands to Calgary-based Cavalier Energy Inc., a subsidiary of the Riddell family-controlled Paramount Resources Ltd., in a transaction that occurred in June, the Financial Post has confirmed.
Koch, one of the world’s largest private companies owned by American billionaires and Republican donors Charles and David Koch, has also abandoned the licences it did not sell in the transaction with Paramount and has been allowing its leases in the play to expire.Did you get that last bit? What Koch Industries couldn't sell it has simply abandoned. Adios, Athabasca. No word yet on just how big a hit Koch had to take to extricate the company from the Tar Sands.
Hey Justin, how's that multi-billion dollar pipeline coming?
Every electric car sold means one less customer buying gasoline.
ReplyDelete"Let them billionaire basterds freeze in the dark!"
ReplyDeleteNow that that's done, who will care for the children?
ReplyDelete.. those old f'ers know the money is in getting the Alberta bitumen cheap.. upgrade for asphalt, fuel for shipping (though even that's getting iffy).. then upgrade, upselling, distributing the various upgraded & refined components.. of course they simply dump and sell the bitumen coke slag.. and good luck in the court systems getting them to clean up.. Oh ! Did I just describe them as outright scumbags ? I don't apologize .. ever ever.. only when I'm wrong
ReplyDeleteIf the Kochs are cashing in their chips, that's the signal that the tarsands are the equivalent of urban blight.
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ReplyDeleteI thought the writing was on the wall when Norway's Statoil, the energy division of its sovereign wealth fund, began moving out of bitumen.
When I read that Koch not only sold out but abandoned its leases that it couldn't sell that was easily as telling as the Norwegians' move.
When the fossil fuelers move out of Athabasca they can move very quickly. That lesson was clear when, almost overnight, they abandoned the Tar Sands to go for the better fields of conventional oil at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. It took two decades at least before the energy giants returned to Athabasca in a big way.
Some musings, speculation.
ReplyDeleteA number of possible reasons, all converging:
- oil prices have cratered, and aren't recovering despite events that would normally see recovery no longer having any effect on the price of oil
-- fear of looming recession that'll take down a few markets
- battery tech is seeing continual improvements, and has taken a massive jump recently with a European company claiming it has hit the magic 1000 km's on a single charge, which is what is necessary for long range flights
-- if this claim is true, 1000 km batteries will cannibilize the automobile market faster than anticipated
- oil/energy companies are really financial companies
-- they don't make money on fuel but the leases, and leases are no longer providing revenue
-- if tar sands are providing no revenue for leases, then no amount of subsidies will save them from financial collapse during recession
-- no amount of bailout will save it either
-- too much value was removed too fast during the Klein years, and then the Harper years
It seems Jason Kenney doesn't know anything about this either. But then, he is busy trying to wrench back a 15.00 wage limit with a "Fake" panel looking into the matter. Anyong.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a matter of time before they all bail leaving taxpayers to pick up the 250 billion+ clean up. And that was according to industry. We all know its going to be far far higher. You know when the government starts shovelling truck loads of money into a specific sector the jig is truly up. We always lose .... but Justin will get a few choice board positions.
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