I am reluctantly wading into this one now against possibly my better judgment..
On the day that the royalty review findings were released, I had the opportunity to meet the Honorable Ed Stelmach briefly as he addressed my company's user group forum, which in the room held many industry players from across North America. You'll be happy to know that I asked him some very tough questions. (I asked him what is the difference between the title "The Honorable" and "The Right Honorable."
Ohhhh Rick Mercer I am not, but I try. .. I try.)
I have to say, he is a stand up guy. He's very likeable in person.
....
Anyhow, I am all for a royalty review. However I am a little concerned about the recommendations. I am not certain if they are a bit of a negotiation tactic, ie. if you ask for "X" but expect to get "half X" and so on. I'm not really sure. For sure, with the price of oil, there's room for ... discussion, shall we say.
Not quite aware of the full details of the recommendations but I have read two reports from financial institutions which are giving advice to investors regarding their projections. These are not the oil companies, these are fund managers. And .. well.. they're quick to point out that the recommendations are not law, but they do say there will be negative impacts. The projections seem to indicate that it's the juniors who will bear the worst brunt of this.
But the comments regarding natural gas ... they are indeed correct. I don't understand how gas already can not be profitable, looking at my heating bill .. but it's true, I have seen first hand that there's no money to be made in natural gas at the moment, in fact, there are companies that are in the red.
So .. while I do favour a review of the royalties, I think that there may be a case for compromise at least in some of the points.