There is a question on whether Mega Projects make sense at today’s oil price and a 25 yr life span of a project. Why would I invest in Canada into something that has utility scale paybacks periods when I can invest in the US shale. Low initial Capital, quick payback, risk spread out over many wells. Even without the government, takeaway issues, and the Canadian regulatory the advances in shale tech allowed for a very attractive place to park capital relative to Canada.
I do not believe that under any set regulatory environment that additional mines would have been built. The 10 billion dollar projects ended with Fort Hills. Now the Billion dollar SAGD plants were likely going to continue slowly but certainly not a the rate of the previous 10 years. Imperial was still approving those prior to Curtailememt.
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