Pipelines

[Kirkhill]

Meanwhile - for a guy that seems to not need anything that we have to sell he seems mightily focused on finding alternate sources of the stuff we can supply cheaply.

Trump Signs Executive Order Boosting Deep-Sea Mining Industry

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry, marking his latest attempt to boost U.S. access to nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.

gcaptain.com

April 24 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry, marking his latest attempt to boost U.S. access to nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.

And he wants Greenland for its strategic location (home of missile bases) and its minerals. Strangely he seems to covet us and we have also have the minerals he needs.

The US is broke other wise he would buy us. He can't afford us so he wants to take us.

FOAD.

....

Meanwhile, in the UK,

Electric ‘superhighway’ delayed in blow to Miliband’s net zero plans

Global shortage of high-voltage cables and converters risks Eastern Green Link 1’s delivery date

www.telegraph.co.uk

The UK wants to build Power Corridors by 2030. Their corridors are a damsight shorter than any of the ones that Carney wants to build.

He is talking about Corridors like the NeeStananan one to Nelson/Churchill (about 4400 kilometers) as well as connections to Grays Bay and Inuvik. Grays Bay is located adjacent to the Coppermine River on the Coronation Gulf.

We may end up exhausting the Coppermine deposits just to manufacture the power lines to get power to the mine.

A £2bn electricity “superhighway” linking England and Scotland is facing delays in a blow to Ed Miliband’s clean power plans.

Eastern Green Link 1 risks missing its target completion date because of global equipment shortages. The project involves a 120-mile cable being built between Scotland and north-east England that is capable of transmitting enough power for 2m homes.

Kathryn Porter, an independent energy analyst, said: “To achieve the Clean Power 2030 target we must build twice as much grid infrastructure in the next five years as we delivered in the past decade.

there is a risk the project will be severely late.

SP Energy and National Grid blamed global shortages of key pieces of equipment, including high-voltage cables and converters, which countries around the world are racing to buy as part of the switch to green energy.

That has led to years-long wait times, with manufacturers racing to expand their capacity but struggling to keep up with demand.

The problem highlights the risk posed to Mr Miliband’s clean power plans by a lack of available parts.

“But supply chain constraints make this an unachievable goal, particularly when we note that the lead time for some transformers is now four years.”

a £350m investment by Sumitomo Electric Industries in a new high-voltage cable manufacturing facility at the Port of Nigg, Highland, Scotland.

...

There seems to be a lot of people scrambling to find the stuff that we have in abundance and readily accessible - old fashioned stuff like iron for electric power pylons - that Carney claims nobody needs any more.

 

[Kirkhill]

Mark Carney's remake

 

[Kirkhill]

And, apparently, you get silicon, the new replacement for ancient stuff like iron and copper and gold, by reacting silica with coal, coke and wood chips and other carbon sources.

Since most Silicon Manufacturing wafers on which electronic devices are built are made of silicon, this material plays a crucial role in the semiconductor industry. Batches of silicon wafers are used to fabricate the microchips that power smartphones, tablets, computers, data centers, high-performance computing, and the internet. If you’re wondering how this semiconductor material is made, we’ve pulled together the critical steps of the silicon manufacturing process.

It’s important to note that silicon metal is produced from the reaction of silica and carbon materials such as coal, coke, and wood chips. While silica comes in metallurgical grade gravel, coal is usually of low ash content, and the woodchips are hardwood.

A Closer Look at the Silicon Manufacturing Process

Take a closer look at the critical steps of the Silicon Manufacturing process. Call now to learn more about this semiconductor material.

www.waferworld.com

And good quality sand and gravel is getting hard to come by.

 

[lenaitch]

I've never quite understood the proposal for "an east-west economic corridor". I always just assumed it was metaphoric. Except in the comparatively flat, wide-open prairies, I don't see the benefits for 'a' corridor. Roads, rails, wires and pipeline each handle geography differently and, outside of the flatlands, can probably take their own alignment more cheaply. Having greater east-west electrical connectivity is a fine ideal, but it's more complex than simply stringing wires. Connections between the east and west (as well as Quebec) require expensive equipment.

Also, why should the taxpayer fund ne rail corridors for for-profit railways when they seem quite happy with the ones they've got (and the profits they generate).

 

[Kirkhill]

I've never quite understood the proposal for "an east-west economic corridor". I always just assumed it was metaphoric. Except in the comparatively flat, wide-open prairies, I don't see the benefits for 'a' corridor. Roads, rails, wires and pipeline each handle geography differently and, outside of the flatlands, can probably take their own alignment more cheaply. Having greater east-west electrical connectivity is a fine ideal, but it's more complex than simply stringing wires. Connections between the east and west (as well as Quebec) require expensive equipment.

Also, why should the taxpayer fund ne rail corridors for for-profit railways when they seem quite happy with the ones they've got (and the profits they generate).

You are assuming the politics is less complex than geography.

The land may vary from region to region but it doesn't change over time.
Politics varies with both region and time.

John A MacDonald's Right of Way is still a valid model, a 24 mile wide strip.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I've never quite understood the proposal for "an east-west economic corridor". I always just assumed it was metaphoric. Except in the comparatively flat, wide-open prairies, I don't see the benefits for 'a' corridor. Roads, rails, wires and pipeline each handle geography differently and, outside of the flatlands, can probably take their own alignment more cheaply. Having greater east-west electrical connectivity is a fine ideal, but it's more complex than simply stringing wires. Connections between the east and west (as well as Quebec) require expensive equipment.

Also, why should the taxpayer fund ne rail corridors for for-profit railways when they seem quite happy with the ones they've got (and the profits they generate).

Not actually side by side, but a corridor which could be 75km wide, where a lot of the preliminary, route survey, geophysics, land ownership studies and preliminary Indigenous consulting. It also puts everyone who buys and wants to build there on notice that said infrastructure might be in the making. BC Hydro did that with a land reserve some 40 years ago for the area impacted by the Site C reservoir.

 

[foresterab]

Not actually side by side, but a corridor which could be 75km wide, where a lot of the preliminary, route survey, geophysics, land ownership studies and preliminary Indigenous consulting. It also puts everyone who buys and wants to build there on notice that said infrastructure might be in the making. BC Hydro did that with a land reserve some 40 years ago for the area impacted by the Site C reservoir.

There's also a few notices (crown land reservations under the Public Lands Act) in Alberta for possible hydro dam expansion too. Many provinces have these types of tools for dealing with public lands.

Private lands get much stickier due to appropriation laws/compensation. You don't want to fuel land speculation costs but at the same time identify corridors where key issues and solutions are identified - whether engineering challenges like rivers/lakes, hill cuts/road grades, First Nation key areas to protect/avoid, staging area road/rail heads for supplies or just pure economics.

Nothing worse than having the "cheap" route all of a sudden become the expensive route due to lack of foresight resulting in a subdivision or industrial complex in the way causing a major route/build change.

 

[lenaitch]

There's also a few notices (crown land reservations under the Public Lands Act) in Alberta for possible hydro dam expansion too. Many provinces have these types of tools for dealing with public lands.

Private lands get much stickier due to appropriation laws/compensation. You don't want to fuel land speculation costs but at the same time identify corridors where key issues and solutions are identified - whether engineering challenges like rivers/lakes, hill cuts/road grades, First Nation key areas to protect/avoid, staging area road/rail heads for supplies or just pure economics.

Nothing worse than having the "cheap" route all of a sudden become the expensive route due to lack of foresight resulting in a subdivision or industrial complex in the way causing a major route/build change.

I imagine most governments have similar levels of land use control. I know in Ontario the province can impose what it calls 'corridor control' which freezes land use for possible future highways decades in advance and long in advance of actual planning, surveys, etc. The only thing they can't encumber is FNTs (and I assume any federal land). We have a friend who has already received notice that her property has been encumbered for a highway expansion that is probably at least 20-30 years out. She won't live to see it and she can sell to them at any time (fair market) but she would have to move - they won't be a landlord.

 

[Kirkhill]

Net zero is ‘doomed to fail’, Blair tells Starmer

Politicians must face ‘inconvenient facts’ about expensive green policies, says former PM

www.telegraph.co.uk

Sir Tony Blair has attacked Sir Keir Starmer’s net zero policies.

The former prime minister said it was wrong that people were “being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal”.

In a significant intervention, Sir Tony said politicians must face “inconvenient facts” that “present policy solutions are inadequate”.

His language echoes that of Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, who said last month that reaching net zero by 2050 was “impossible”.

Writing in the foreword to a new report from his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute, Sir Tony accused leaders of being “terrified” to admit that climate policies were not working.

“Present policy solutions are inadequate and, worse, are distorting the debate into a quest for a climate platform that is unrealistic and therefore unworkable,” he said.

“Too often, political leaders fear saying what many know to be true – the current approach isn’t working. But they mustn’t be silent – there’s a new coalition to build; one that unites disillusioned activists with technologists and policymakers ready to act.

“Political leaders by and large know that the debate has become irrational. But they’re terrified of saying so for fear of being accused of being ‘climate deniers’.

“As ever, when sensible people don’t speak up about the way a campaign is being conducted, the campaign stays in the hands of those who end up alienating the very opinion on which consent for action depends.”

He said rising demand for the production of fossil fuels meant that trying to curb their use would not work, adding: “These are the inconvenient facts, which mean that any strategy based on either ‘phasing out’ fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail.”

The report, Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action on Climate Change, said that net zero policies were “increasingly viewed as unaffordable, ineffective, or politically toxic”. It said that in many economies “the promise of green jobs has not materialised at the scale expected.”

....

To Canada, where Mark Carney is settling into his first week in the top job. The former Bank of England governor won a landslide victory in Sunday’s election and has been quick to turn his attention to the growing animosity between his nation and its neighbour over Donald Trump’s tariffs. But what prompted the new Liberal party leader to go for the gig in the first place? The answer, it transpires, lies with one Tony Blair.

According to Monday’s episode of the News Agents podcast, it was the New Labour stalwart who inspired Carney to run – after a luxury dinner and jaunt around West London.

Co-host Emily Maitlis insisted that Carney had been considering going for the leadership ‘for a long time’. She went on:

He saw Justin Trudeau and he thought it only works if Trudeau goes quickly, “because if I don’t have enough time to bed in before the election then I can’t win an election”.

Did Blair persuade Carney to run for PM?

To Canada, where Mark Carney is settling into his first week in the top job. The former Bank of England governor won a landslide victory in Sunday’s election and has been quick to turn his attention to the growing animosity between his nation and its neighbour over Donald Trump’s tariffs. But...

www.spectator.co.uk

....

Power is everything, especially in Canada.

 

[FJAG]

"Landslide victory . . . ?"

Anyhow - if Tony Blair convinced Carney to run, maybe he'll convince him that Net Zero is doomed.

 

[Kirkhill]

Further to Blair not supporting Starmer on Net Zero

"Oh yes, he does!" sez Starmer

Municipal elections this week

Blair backs down on Starmer net zero attack

Former PM previously said ‘doomed’ policies required the public to make unrealistic financial sacrifices and lifestyle changes

www.telegraph.co.uk

And the UK minister of energy declares there is no connection between taxes on oil and gas and the cost of energy and the cost of living.

Why Miliband’s energy prices claim is baffling economists

Far from having no impact, the North Sea tax raid may have added £300 to your bills

www.telegraph.co.uk

No10 refuses to guarantee Ed Miliband’s survival

Politics latest news: No10 refuses to guarantee Ed Miliband’s survival

Downing Street has refused to guarantee Ed Miliband will stay in his role as Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary.

www.telegraph.co.uk

Thank the lord we have a brilliant financial mind like the Net Zero supporting Governor of the Bank of England in charge.



....


Meanwhile ....

Most of the world is mired in debt. This tiny group of countries is propping us up

Never mind the G7 and Security Council, these uber-wealthy Gulf states (and Norway) are the quiet power players on the world stage

www.telegraph.co.uk

Barrels of proven oil reserves (bn)

UAE - 111 bn
Kuwait - 101.5 bn
Qatar - 25.2 bn
Norway - 7.6 bn

Canada - 171 bn (166 oil sands and 5 conventional)



Cubic feet of natural gas reserves (tn)
Qatar 843 tn
UAE 290 tn
Kuwait 64 tn
Norway 48 tn


Canada 1566 tn

The malfeasance associated with Canadian politicians and their management of Canada's assets is staggering.

 

[QV]

Canada could be the richest country on the planet while having the highest possible environmental standards and quality of life. With that wealth Canada could have top tier healthcare and other social programs, all the advanced defence equipment it needs, while attracting high skilled immigrants. Canada could lead the world in space exploration and other endeavors for the human race. Canada's influence in the world would be gigantic.

But no, we have a population and politicians that won't permit any of that. What a shame.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Canada could be the richest country on the planet while having the highest possible environmental standards and quality of life. With that wealth Canada could have top tier healthcare and other social programs, all the advanced defence equipment it needs, while attracting high skilled immigrants. Canada could lead the world in space exploration and other endeavors for the human race. Canada's influence in the world would be gigantic.

But no, we have a population and politicians that won't permit any of that. What a shame.

Canada is weird country. We don't seem to want to let our true potential loose.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Canada is weird country. We don't seem to want to let our true potential loose.

I am always the optimist.

I remember 2 decades ago when decisions were being made to set up the CPPIB and all the mea culpa's that were being lamented across the country as to why this was a stupid idea, why it was doomed to failure, how it was another example of government involved in the private sector and how could we 'gamble' with our pensioners money - 20+yrs on and the CPPIB is a undeniable success story. It has secured our the CPP for decades into the future, reduced strain on the Fed's for potential future liabilities in unfunded pension payments in the future and is a model that other countries in the world have studied.

Because of this I am hopefully that something similar could be implemented here in Canada that would be along the lines of the Norwegian Wealth Fund or the UAE Sovereign Fund. Someone like Carney 'gets' something like this, it makes complete sense to someone with this background, experience and connections. His 'buddies' (a loose term that I've decided to use here), in the investment world would love to grow something like this here in Canada. The CPPIB is a text book case on how to do something similar with success. It would require sign on by Quebec for it to be truly 'national' in scope and direction, but given the current political environment, now could be the best to create something like this.

A new CDN Sovereign energy wealth fund, something like the CPPIB, would be another, major within 10yrs, internal investment pool that could be used to help expand, fund and grow internal Canadian infrastructure projects (like those new deep sea ports, those new all-weather roads to and within the arctic, those new small modular nuclear power plants, those new pipelines, those new LNG facilities, those new 'clean, green' hydrogen export facilities, those new 'east-west power corridors, those new high-speed train lines). Its the perfect 'internal' growth vehicle for developing, owning and making revenue off of these critically needed projects and for using the excess funds to diversify and investment in other growth projects around the world.

EDIT:

I'm adding a wiki link to the CPPIB in case anyone doesn't fully understand what they do with our CPP contributions.

CPP Investments - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[IKnowNothing]

@Kirkhill ,

I agree with the sentiment. I also think that directly nationalizing the governmental/societal benefit from the proceeds of extracting the nation's resources, strictly managing supply through a National cartel to ensure price consistency and sustainable profitable operation, and generally taking a more strategic, long view approach would be not only prudent- but also greatly change the rest of the countries view onO&G.

Something tells me Danielle Smith would not be so fond of the ideas.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Because of this I am hopefully that something similar could be implemented here in Canada that would be along the lines of the Norwegian Wealth Fund or the UAE Sovereign Fund. Someone like Carney 'gets' something like this, it makes complete sense to someone with this background, experience and connections. His 'buddies' (a loose term that I've decided to use here), in the investment world would love to grow something like this here in Canada. The CPPIB is a text book case on how to do something similar with success. It would require sign on by Quebec for it to be truly 'national' in scope and direction, but given the current political environment, now could be the best to create something like this.

There's basically only one culture in Norway. Historically northerners felt mistreated by southerners (with reason), but I doubt that is still a factor. Canada has at least 6 distinct regions: Atlantic, QC, ON, Prairies, BC, North. Each of them, and some more than others, likes to suck at a federal teat in different ways and degrees. They manifestly do not always agree on pursuing or even allowing things in the national interest. Any accumulation of capital would quickly be misused politically. The critical factor is that the CPPIB mainly invests in established interests, which is not at all the same as owning and operating interests or being a direct project investor (as opposed to simply investing in organizations). Deciding what projects to pursue is ripe for political interference.

Also:

• from where are contributions to a national savings account to come?
• who are the wise people who are capable of out-performing private interests in finding and executing on major opportunities, and why should we suppose those people aren't already employed by private interests?
• if such a board were simply to act as a venture capitalist, how is it to be insulated from the same pressures and behaviour as every other government agency subject to lobbying?

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Well, if we are going to create a national energy sovereign fund, created by taxing energy exports, let’s make sure we tax all energy exports, including hydro and nuclear.

All must contribute, right?

 

[Good2Golf]

@Kirkhill ,

I agree with the sentiment. I also think that directly nationalizing the governmental/societal benefit from the proceeds of extracting the nation's resources, strictly managing supply through a National cartel to ensure price consistency and sustainable profitable operation, and generally taking a more strategic, long view approach would be not only prudent- but also greatly change the rest of the countries view onO&G.

Something tells me Danielle Smith would not be so fond of the ideas.

It’s no so much Danielle Smith one has to be concerned with ‘fondness’ of the concept. It’s the incumbent First Nations on Treaty 8 land (and the unceded mineral (including oil) rights agreed between the federal Crown and those bands…

Albertans who believe that oil and gas in Alberta is uniquely the province’s to do with as it pleases are perhaps not appreciating the situation as is legally is.

 

[MilEME09]

Canada is weird country. We don't seem to want to let our true potential loose.

We also don't manage our money correctly and leave a great many loop holes open to prevent us from making more money

 

[Brad Sallows]

strictly managing supply through a National cartel to ensure price consistency

Commodities speculators already perform this function, and a prudent assumption is that they outnumber whatever tiny force we could muster to work for a government agency and therefore would always outperform it.

and sustainable profitable operation

Open markets (pricing) already perform this function.

, and generally taking a more strategic, long view approach would be not only prudent

Successful companies already perform this function. The only refinement government can add is to "price in" the value of strategic national capabilities, which is not a factor private corporations consider.