Western Expresso

[Winnipegger]

So I know many of you on this forum hate the concept of cars, driving, and individual commutes. However, the recent and drastic increases in gas prices not only in Manitoba but Canada as well is a cause for alarm regardless of whether you own a car or not. Gas, and even more importantly oil play a huge role in all of our lives no matter what the life style. It effects the prices of foods, plastics, clothes, public transit, and everything in between. So what do you think forum? Should we be worried about gas prices right now or has the recent increase just been due to oil speculation resulting from the revolutions in OPEC countries?

[Boreal]

When ever you hear executives or large petro-energy firms cite market forces as the reason for a rise in prices, they are not necessarily lying. What they fail to communicate however, is that they are the market force.

Look, the world plain and simple, does not function at $200 a barrel, in spite of Jeffrey Rubin's best wishes (how he continues to be employed baffles me to this day. His last name must mean something amongst the power brokers at the CIBC, because he is constantly wrong, and tends to miss the mark by wide margins). When commodity prices start to hedge out into the stratosphere, a market correction will follow. There is of course the short term issues associated with high energy prices, but those are not long term issues. Depending on who you talk to, consensus seems to be that the world works very effectively at $70-100 a barrel. As you said, many industries rely on petroleum, but these industries have a breaking point (the point at which revenues turn red, and they file for Chapter 11...if American).

I'd still suggest that the recession isn't over (outside of textbook definition), and that we've only just begun to ride the roller coaster. There is tonnes of sovereign debt floating around out there. Europe hasn't even been dealt with yet. The elephant in the room that everyone doesn't want to talk about.

[Crisis]

Although I'm a bedroom community commuter who drives a lot, the increase in gas prices doesn't trouble me. As much as it may cost us more individually, there is no doubt that high oil prices are a good thing for Saskatchewan. The higher the oil prices, the more work in the oil patch, the higher the production and the higher the provincial royalties, thereby benefitting all Saskatchewanians. As noted, there is a breaking point at which high oil prices will kill the economy, but I don't believe we are near that point yet.

[roccerfeller]

Anyone have any knowledge about the Oil in Southwestern MB?

I heard from a reputable source who deals down there that North Dakota is going to be the "next Texas" when it comes to oil, and its all this newly discovered oil. Apparently, a good portion of this oil exists in southwestern MB, and there is no need to extract it like one would need to with the oil sands, so it is cheaper to extract.

He mentioned that within the past 3-4 weeks the oil pumps in a specific spot have increased from 4 to 11...

These are the guys behind it http://www.katanaoil.com/

Emphasis is on development, enhancement (EOR), exploitation and optimization with the general avoidance of exploration risk.

- so not like Shell or PetroCanada, they don't do that stuff...but they do the middle man work.


I know Richardson has oil interests in Sask, I wonder what this could do for Manitoba?? This really diversifies things even more....not only do we have all this tech, med, and industrial stuff in Winnipeg in addition to agriculture, hydro, and other natural resources, but now there is oil being found as a rapidly increasing rate.

[roccerfeller]

Originally Posted by Winnipegger

So I know many of you on this forum hate the concept of cars, driving, and individual commutes. However, the recent and drastic increases in gas prices not only in Manitoba but Canada as well is a cause for alarm regardless of whether you own a car or not. Gas, and even more importantly oil play a huge role in all of our lives no matter what the life style. It effects the prices of foods, plastics, clothes, public transit, and everything in between. So what do you think forum? Should we be worried about gas prices right now or has the recent increase just been due to oil speculation resulting from the revolutions in OPEC countries?

I think this question has such a sparse web of considerations that to answer it specifically is almost impossible for myself, short of writing an essay, but it is certainly a very interesting, intriguing, and good question to ask

One thing I can say for sure, is I love driving and I love cars. And a lot of the things I love in life are by extension dependent on things such as oil.

I think to a degree we should be worried, but more so than that, I question if people will actually start worrying only once it becomes too late...

...at least for the span of our immediate lifetimes, we won't have to worry about oil prices as much as the consecutive generations will.

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by roccerfeller

I think this question has such a sparse web of considerations that to answer it specifically is almost impossible for myself, short of writing an essay, but it is certainly a very interesting, intriguing, and good question to ask

One thing I can say for sure, is I love driving and I love cars. And a lot of the things I love in life are by extension dependent on things such as oil.

I think to a degree we should be worried, but more so than that, I question if people will actually start worrying only once it becomes too late...

...at least for the span of our immediate lifetimes, we won't have to worry about oil prices as much as the consecutive generations will.

I think the problem is that we are consistently told that oil won't be a big deal for us right now, but more so in the future. I don't believe that this is true. Sure our lifestyles are still sustainable at $1.20 a litre, or maybe even $2.00 a litre, but if I were to make a prediction, I would say that oil will escalate past $2.00 a litre here in Manitoba within ten years. The rapid growth in the west (as in the Western World and namely suburban North America) has been fueled by cheap fossil fuels. Are there a lot of fossil fuels left? Probably, and many people in that industry would say so. Just look at the oil sands. But unfortunately all the easy oil is almost gone, and we must now move on to more and more expensive methods. I don't think gas prices will ever return to 60 cents or even 80 cents a litre, so we better get used to seeing the current prices until we develop alternatives.

And this isn't even taking into consideration environmental issues or political ones. Who knows, if the middle east stabilizes oil prices might fall. But what are the chances of that?

[Ruckus]

Originally Posted by Winnipegger

So I know many of you on this forum hate the concept of cars, driving, and individual commutes. However, the recent and drastic increases in gas prices not only in Manitoba but Canada as well is a cause for alarm regardless of whether you own a car or not. Gas, and even more importantly oil play a huge role in all of our lives no matter what the life style. It effects the prices of foods, plastics, clothes, public transit, and everything in between. So what do you think forum? Should we be worried about gas prices right now or has the recent increase just been due to oil speculation resulting from the revolutions in OPEC countries?

One major concern I have with rising oil prices: Saskatchewan's ability, capacity, and willingness to manage additional oil royalties.

I anxiously await my Wall bucks.

[1ajs]

the mb oil patch is around 7million barrels a year atm

[h0twired]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

the mb oil patch is around 7million barrels a year atm

However that is useless to Manitoba because 80% of the mineral rights in the oil patch are privately held. As a result Manitoba gets next to nothing for the oil that comes out of the ground and you just have a bunch of rich farmers in Virden.

[1ajs]

they still pay taxs no?


anyhow i got a new boarder
• Video Link

[vid]

I sounds like they don't have to pay royalties to the government for the extraction of the oil like they do in Alberta, or in Ontario's remote mines, and that is where all the revenue is coming from. Taxes from income at the personal and corporate levels don't contribute all that much in addition to what already exists, and property taxes aren't a big source of wealth for municipalities either. Ontario fought your province to the highest courts to get Northern Ontario to secure natural resource royalties, so obviously that's the goal with natural resource exploitation.

[LilZebra]

Originally Posted by Riverman

Hey Riverman, you photographed an orb there. That's NOT the Moon or the Sun because of how it overlayed with other parts of the background.

Orbs are spirit consciousness. They can be former human souls (good or bad), or demons (good or bad), etc...

See more...
http://www.dimensional-orb-designs.com/
http://haunted-earth.org/Haunted_Earth_on_the_Secret_Lif.html

[Spocket]

Originally Posted by jimj_wpg

Hey Riverman, you photographed an orb there. That's NOT the Moon or the Sun because of how it overlayed with other parts of the background.

Orbs are spirit consciousness. They can be former human souls (good or bad), or demons (good or bad), etc...

See more...
http://www.dimensional-orb-designs.com/
http://haunted-earth.org/Haunted_Earth_on_the_Secret_Lif.html

Or , uh , they could just be reflections . Colour me mundane but before we can make a statement about spirits and ghosts , it seems prudent to rule out the obvious first .

[dsim249]

Ya..... I'm gonna go with the wikipedia definition on this one...

Orb artifacts are captured during low-light instances where the camera's flash is used, such as at night or underwater. The artifacts are especially common with compact or ultra-compact cameras, where the short distance between the lens and the built-in flash decreases the angle of light reflection to the lens, directly illuminating the aspect of the particles facing the lens and increasing the camera's ability to capture the light reflected off normally sub-visible particles.[1]

The orb artifact can result from retroreflection of light off solid particles (e.g., dust, pollen), liquid particles (water droplets, especially rain) or other foreign material within the camera lens.[1]

The image artifacts usually appear as either white or semi-transparent circles, though may also occur with whole or partial color spectrums, purple fringing or other chromatic aberration. With rain droplets, an image may capture light passing through the droplet creating a small rainbow effect.

[Bdog]

Originally Posted by jimj_wpg

Hey Riverman, you photographed an orb there. That's NOT the Moon or the Sun because of how it overlayed with other parts of the background.

Orbs are spirit consciousness. They can be former human souls (good or bad), or demons (good or bad), etc...

See more...
http://www.dimensional-orb-designs.com/
http://haunted-earth.org/Haunted_Earth_on_the_Secret_Lif.html

[Riverman]

Originally Posted by jimj_wpg

Hey Riverman, you photographed an orb there.

It could also be a drop of water on the lens.

[Boreal]

Bdog... HaHaHa!!

[vid]

GHOSTS!!

We should get back on topic before 1ajs tells us to chill.

[1ajs]

chill vid chill!! i moved it to the Expresso!!

[Ruckus]

Watch this even if you have an understanding of the American banking system. Effective use of animation, humour, and allegory to convey a serious subject.

I got a kick out of the Back to the Future scenes

• Video Link