potate

I always appreciated the old adage about Canadian politics that the outcome will always be the most boring option. This was not that.

John Timmer does an incredible job with with articles like this.

A bunch o' ridings were gearing up for recall campaigns before the federal election got called. A whole lot of folks were distributing literature and rallying volunteers until folks refocused on the federal election.

Once the election is done, I'm pretty confident that'll ramp up again - the UCP ain't getting less corrupt. Check out abresistance.ca for info.

I kinda like pet-chem if we're going to do more upgrading - and sure enough we're seeing activity in the space.

Refineries produce gasoline (for old cars), diesel (for old trucks), and oils (there's alternatives). Refineries are for antiquated tech that were trying to phase out IMO.

Upgrading light ends (methane, ethane, propane, etc) are what I'd be investing in if I was looking at fossil fuels investment. We have LOTS of gas plants sweetening and fractionating that stuff so the product streams are there and the emissions intensity of that end is WAY better than liquids.

Dow is building a huge ethane cracker to produce polyethylene. IPL has the Heartland petrochemical complex that's going to be soaking up immense amounts of propane to produce polypropylene pellets. I haven't checked what Nova is up to lately, but I can promise you they're looking to grow in the space.

I don't love polymers, but we COULD recycle it if we were smart and unlike combustion where everything ends up in the atmosphere, a landfill full of plastic is actually carbon sequestration when you think about it.

Methane (natural gas) is worth approximately nothing at the moment, but coastal LNG exports will help China et al. ween off coal while they continue to build out renewables and Europe needs LNG for similar reasons and timescales.

Source - random internet person

I live and work downtown Calgary in an O&G related field (emissions reduction analysis - it's a frustrating job). I listen to a LOT of anti-Smith diatribes. The UCP mostly gets elected by rural ridings. They have about half of Calgary, and I don't know why they even bother running candidates in Edmonton.

There's a lot similarities to BC actually - BC votes conservative (whatever they call themselves) most places outside of Vancouver and Victoria.

There's even recall campaign talk in Calgary at the moment because people are hoping to force an early election to try and force the UCP out. (abresistance.ca for any Calgary homies who are interested in getting involved)

I think that the scale of investment involved in oil sands development necessitates MUCH longer range planning than relatively short political cycles.

There's may be something to be said maximizing CAPEX when the commodity pricing sucks. Spending pullback from the more boom/bust centric conventional/frac operators reduces competition for trades and key manufacturers.

I think the differentiator at the moment is the lack of predictability. Normally your financial models only have to factor in modest price uncertainty. Right now the tariffs change so quickly that who knows what things will cost. I don't have a clue how you price a project in this environment. I pitty project managers.

Steel plate and pipe is easy to source domestically - especially when the US buyers aren't tying up Evraz capacity. Big inch valves would start to get tricky I think - but it's been over a decade since I was working in that space. Coatings are Dupont and 3M for buried assets - so lots of risk exposure there.

Personally, if I operated any major facilities (fractionation/refineries) I'd be looking at what turnaround/maintenance work I could be pulling forward right now. When oil's booming, you don't want to shut down your money machine to do repairs.

Huh, I thought it was just me that did that - I just assumed everyone else was so much more disciplined than me...

I watched the video taken by one of the medics. It's brutal.

My handwriting isn't great but it's legible (by me at least). I'm old (40s)and still find it quicker to jot notes - especially when I need to add figures.

The blog post is an incredible read.

Yea, if the Supernote Manta had been available that is probably the way I would have gone. I'm really interested in their repairability/upgradeability angle. I've had a Framework laptop for ages that just grows with me. Less waste, less cost.

I have a Remarkable Paper Pro. I use it for notes, organization, reading books, etc. I love it.

The new Supernote is also a compelling option.

The ePaper display means I rarely have to worry about battery and the pen feeling is MILES better than any LCD I've ever tried.

My files all sync to my laptop and my phone, and it is way more comfortable to write on than a double screen device because I can have my 'pad' in letter orientation and my hand doesn't run into the screen which can happen on the double screen devices.

It's also fantastic for taking notes in meetings because I don't have a laptop between me and the others and I don't get distracted by notifications. It's also light enough to disappear into my bag next to my laptop.