Monday, March 16, 2020

While We're On the Subject of Pipelines


It's not just human health that's in jeopardy from the Covid-19 pandemic. The fossil fuel industry is taking a pounding. Part of it is the decline in energy consumption from economies that are largely shutting down due to the virus. International air travel has tanked. People are being told to work at home and stay there. There's a glut of fuel on the markets and prices aren't expected to get out of the $30 per bbl doldrums any time soon.

Then there's the oil war underway between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis wanted production cutbacks. Russia refused. The Saudis intend to retaliate by flooding world markets with ultra-cheap oil.

How that going? Well it's creating a seller's market for supertanker operators. Supertanker rates have soared 678 per cent.
Just before the OPEC+ break-up on March 6, daily rates for VLCCs were in the low $30,000s. At the end of last week, the cost to charter a supertanker had surged to $200,000-$300,000 a day, depending on the destination of the crude oil cargo, brokers told The Journal.



4 comments:

the salamander said...

.. I first saw this well over a year ago.. I keep trying to catch up on news of outbound Aframax tankers from Burnaby, BC. Where are they bound ? I recall it being 50% loaded.. perhaps it is 75% loaded, through the 2nd Narrows. I don't recall much Asian bound dilbit. Over the last 5 years ? 5 ? 50 ? 25 ? I wrote about this port and these ships many times.. its quite real.. but the article forgot about the potential for Venezuelan dilbit of slightly better quality, lower sulphur coming in from across the Caribbean.. and obviously it Ms Notely, Lremier at the time

https://theenergymix.com/2018/03/05/exclusive-out-of-the-loop-the-fatal-flaw-of-albertas-oil-export-expansion/

Northern PoV said...

Yup. Only 26% of guaranteed tidewater access on #TransMountain used in 2019.

And zero tankers left Burnaby in Jan/2020.

Trailblazer said...

That is why Christy Clark wanted a bridge and not tunnel for the Fraser river crossing.

Had it not been for the Russia Saudi oil price spat the USA wish to liberalise
the much closer to the US refineries, Venezuelan oil would be the next Alberta oil killer.
All in all the future of dilbit and Alberta looks very shaky.

TB

the salamander said...

.. next odd question is..

If we have not heard a squeak about Coastal Gaslink Pipeline or the pipeline running parallel to its immediate south.. PacificTrails Pipeline.. why not ? The one is to feed Montney formation methane to LNG Canada in Kitimat, the 2nd to feed Kitimat LNG. All for export to Asia.. but but but... Alberta Pension Funds, essentially seized by Jason Kenney's not so secret edict, were funneled into AIMco and then Alberta paid fo take 65% - ownership & control of Coastal GasLink Pipeline. The purchase was completed as the Wet'suwet'en protests were breaking over that same pipeline. Kenney et al said nothing at the time regarding Alberta purchasing a highly contraversial gas pipeline in British Columbia. I don't recall a squeak from John Horgan et al either.. about another province taking control of a BC pipeline to its coast.

Does anyone really think such a pipeline, starting so close to the Alberta border and its share of the Montney Formation plus other shared shale formations would not actually commence to also delivering Alberta methane ? What the hell is going on here ? This defies belief ! This is a complete 'end run'. There is not a hope in hell, that Ms Notely, Ms Clark, Mr Kenney, Mr Trudeau et al were not aware of, indeed privy to the purchase negotiations.. at the very same time as the legalities or truly shaky and dark edges of infringing upon Aboriginal Title were being cooked by all concerned.. including TC Energy, LNG Canada & of course Kitimat LNG. Site C ties right into this. Meanwhile, the Montney play is also feeding domestic oil and methane use to the south as well as export into the US, and some is headed to the tar sands to fuel expansion of Bitumen extraction for dilbit export from BC's coast.

If my simplistic assembly of this story is basically correct, Canadians need to be made aware. There are three Governments that could fall over how this evasion was fabricated secretely. All of this has been going on with various regulatory approvals, huge committments of taxpayer paid subsidy.. all conducted on Canadian taxpayer dime and in major part, conducted by Public Servants paid and pensioned by taxpayers.

Who would care to wager that Scott Brison, B of M, Ms Wilson-Raybould and Lavalin LNC are not all entwined in this astonishing reality ? Who would care or dare to wager currently, that those two pipelines in North East BC remain in progress, on budget.. all the while infringing not just on Aboriginal Title.. but seeming despite any Constitutional legal realities ? In my view this is a Pulitzer Prize parked in Calgary at night, with the keys in the ignition of a blue pickup truck with the engine left running, unlocked, a backseat and the back full of Alberta whisky and brown bags full of cash on the front seat.