Monday, July 8, 2013

Oil, Trains and Pipelines

We have just seen a cost of not allowing enough pipelines to be built to get our oil to market. See the latest news on the explosion of an oil tanker train in Lac Megantic at the CBC site.

The basic thing is that what is wanted by the market will find a way to get to the market. Our oil is wanted. However, there are lots of people who felt that if they stopped the building of pipelines they would stop Alberta oil from being mined. Train cars to transport the oil were built because not enough pipelines were allowed to be built.

Using pipelines to transport oil is a lot safer with fewer spills than using trains. Clearly those who thought that trains would not be used to transport oil were wrong.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

4 comments:

  1. The market wants prostitution. the market wants cheap labor, the cheaper the better. The market wants illegal drugs. The market wants illegal guns.

    Is your answer: lets satisfy the market.

    Can you recall BP in the Gulf of Mexico - they were just satisfying market demand.

    Where are your stats to support pipelines being safer than rail?

    I find it distasteful that people would use this tragedy to push a pro oil pipeline agenda.

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    1. Yes, of course, we are been so successful in stamping out prostitution, drugs and guns. We put in miniumum wage laws and we have fewer jobs, especially for the young. This also has been so so successful.

      You have not been paying attention if you need me to provide stats on how much safer pipelines is than rail.

      And are you using this tragedy to push anti-oil agenda?

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    2. If you have data to support you claim that pipelines are safer than rail then please provide it.

      It would be interesting to see what metrics for safety were used.

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    3. No.

      If you are interested in this I suggest you do your own research. I am not interested in doing this as I have not kept track of this subject.

      However, if you find an independent research paper that says this is not true, I would be very interest in reading it.

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