As reported by the Calgary Herald(1), Koch Oil Sands Operating has decided to shelve its Muskwa oil sands project, blaming the GHG emissions control initiatives of Alberta’s NDP government.

It's time to play hardball!

If Alberta isn’t good enough for the ultra-right-wing Kochs, whose main oil and gas company operates in Texas, they can sell all their Alberta holdings to the people of Alberta, or walk away when thelr leases expire. Note: My original post, and Letter-to-Editor published in the Calgary Herald on Dec. 22, had the Kochs from Texas. In fact they are from Kansas, however, their main oil and gas interests, and the largest number of Koch employees, are in Texas.

According to reports(2), with holdings of at least 1.1 million acres (1,719 sq. miles) in the Alberta oil patch, the Kochs are the single largest foreign investors in Alberta mineral leases.

Albertans could then start up an oil sands version of the stellar Alberta Energy Company, started by Peter Lougheed and later sold and split into EnCana and Cenovus, and make its shares available to every Albertan so that every Albertan benefits from the jobs and the control of all the profits from our, our, resources.

I’ll be first in-line to buy shares.

(1) http://calgaryherald.com/business/energy/ndp-climate-plan-cited-in-koch-bid-to-cancel-oilsands-project

(2) https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/07/06/billionaire_koch_brothers_are_big_oil_players_in_alberta.html

Mike Priaro

Calgary, Alberta

403-281-2156

Mike Priaro, B.Eng.Sc. (Chem. Eng.), U.W.O. '76, P.Eng., Lifetime Member Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), worked in facilities, production, operations and reservoir engineering, as engineering consultant, area superintendent, and engineering management in Alberta's oil patch for 25 years for companies such as Amoco and PetroCanada.

He increased oil production from the historic Turner Valley oilfield and brought in under-balanced drilling and completion technology to drill out, complete, and test several of the highest producing gas wells ever on mainland Canada at Ladyfern. He co-authored ‘Advanced Fracturing Fluids Improve Well Economics’ in Schlumberger's Oilfield Review and developed the course material for the ‘Advanced Production Engineering’ course at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

Mike has presented his work to Canada’s House Committee on Natural Resources in Ottawa and to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications in Calgary. He has had work published in: Alberta Oil magazine on Oct. 20, 2016; World Pipelines magazine in September 2016; the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in the Mar. and Apr., 2014 and Feb., 2015 editions of Inside Policy magazine; U.S. energy industry websites such as RBN Energy; in the Jul. 17, 2014 edition of the Oil and Gas Journal; in Petroleum Technology Quarterly, Q3 2014; and in columns in the Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Halifax Chronicle Herald, and others.

Mike has no formal connection to any oil company, environmental organization, think tank, labour organization, lobbying or special interest group, academia, or to provincial or federal politics.

In 2015 Mike provided "A Preliminary Engineering, Economic, and Environmental Evaluation of ASRL's Partial Upgrading Process" to Alberta Sulphur Research Limited and presented it to 80 representatives of ASRL's member companies. ASRL partial upgrading subsequently obtained Alberta government funding and industry support. On Jan. 29, 2016, the Alberta Government made partial upgrading a priority based on its Royalty Review Panel’s recommendations. As of Nov. 2016, the ASRL partial upgrading flow test pilot is running at CANMET/NRCan’s research facility in Devon, AB.

In 2016 Mike was invited to be a Bowman Centre Volunteer Associate at the not-for-profit Bowman Centre for Sustainable Energy. Its mission is 'to catalyze big energy projects which drive Canada’s energy strategy and generate sustainable wealth and jobs'.

Mike’s work can be found on his LinkedIn pages: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-priaro or Behance website: https://www.behance.net/Mike_Priaro