From the Friday Telegram, two examples of completely loopy comments, namely ones unsupported by fact.
First, the editorial on Hebron which states:
And because the province holds an equity position in Hebron, it will also have the chance to develop expertise in running an oilfield, which means employees won't only be welders and heavy-equipment operators, but will be managers, designers and engineers, too.
Now since the Telly-torialist has been following this project, he or she is aware that the equity interest in the project includes absolutely no management rights; that is, there are no decision-making rights involved.
If that weren't enough, the managers, designers and engineers will not be employed by the provincial government's Ener Corp subsidiary. The managers, designers and engineers are employed by the major players or the private sector contractors doing the work.
And if even all that weren't true, the Telly-torialist need only have read a news story which moved late yesterday afternoon and which is a front page story in the print edition of the Friday paper:
The ink has barely dried on the Hebron deal and a change of operators is taking place - ExxonMobil Canada will be the new lead partner among the five companies developing the oilfield.
Managing Hebron is not going to be a job rotating among the interest holders.
Nope.
Chevron was doing that job.
As of yesterday, ExxonMobil is slipping into the lead.
Second, there's a column by Brian Jones, one of the Telly's editors:
The province's political culture has also evolved, along with people's taste in wheels. The offshore oil debate used to revolve around royalties, a word seldom used by politicians in the 1990s. Despite lacklustre leadership, people became aware of the fact that, as owners, the public deserved a better share of offshore oil revenue.
Wednesday's Hebron announcement revealed that the provincial government will rake in about $28 billion, via royalties, taxes and profits.
The government will rake in $28 billion.
No question.
Definitely.
The problem for Jones is that, as he well knows, the $28 billion figure is based on the assumption that from 2018 until the last drop of oil is drained from Hebron, the price of a barrel of oil will average US$115.
With that kind of writing, Pollyanna must be on suicide watch.
Brian needs to check on both the average price of oil over the past 25 years and the typical price of a barrel. Let's just say that the number you come up with in either case is nowhere near one hundred and fifteen bucks.
Perhaps he is thinking the world price of oil will be expressed in Weimar marks or Zimbabwe dollars, the latter of which has been valued against the American dollar at exchange rates that make the thing literally not worth the paper its printed on.
Such unsubstantiated commentary.
We really haven't had that spirit here since 1969.
-srbp-