Editorial: We all know the world still needs oil. There has yet been no catch-all alternative energy solution developed that will soon make fossil fuels an anachronism from the heady days of the 20th century. In fact, despite any forward progress that has been made, the world still largely turns on non-renewable energy consumption, and that trend doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. Unfortunately, that also means the price volatility of oil won’t be changing anytime soon. Currently with Alberta’s mono-economy based largely on oil and gas revenues, with oil prices plunging drastically in the last half of 2014 there are likely to be hard times ahead for the province. And almost no one is predicting it to be a short-lived price anomaly. On Monday, oil prices slipped to $50 per barrel in trading on world markets for the first time since the 2009 recession, and if the alarm bells weren’t ringing in the fall of 2014, they will be clanging loud and clear in early 2015 in the board rooms of many of the world’s primary oil producers. Benchmark oil prices, such as the Brent and West Texas Intermediate, saw a 45 per cent drop between June and December 2014. In Alberta, resource companies have been violently slashing projected capital spending for 2015 as the international fire sale of oil continues, an ominous warning sign that significant layoffs are probably looming for the resource sector in the province. Read the full story here: tabertimes/editorial/2015/01/07/diversity-key-in-weathering-economic-challenges/
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 19:25:15 +0000
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