No deals to be made with the oilpatch

Re: High-stakes oilpatch tug of war leaves Notley government stuck in the middle, Opinion, Nov. 6 Kudos on Chris Varcoe’s column. Of course the energy sector will cut back on supply if the price is low and forecast is weak. And when prices are high, production will increase.

Suncor, Exxon and Husky’s game plans were to engage in both upstream and downstream sectors and maybe, until now, did not see comparative profits to those in only the upstream game.

In a similar vein, CNRL does the same by increasing production (reserves) by buying distressed companies in difficult times at fire sale prices.

But for CNRL’s Laut and Edwards to suggest that they need to be compensated is rich indeed. For CNRL to engage in business ventures, extract profit, then want to balance the marketplace is eerily similar to the U.S. brothers Charles and David Koch’s control of oil, the pricing process and, eventually, the political process all in one.

They have been there before: CNRL — government — Northwest Upgrader, a corporately stellar deal given that government was on the hook for all cost overruns. The Notley government only needs to look at that deal and quickly determine they will not win in deal making with CNRL. The root problem is transportation, specifically a lack of east-west pipelines. Edward Gillmor, Calgary