Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Devon Gas Plant-Bad news for the Crowsnest Pass

More dire news for the Crowsnest Pass, I hear that the Devon Gas Plant is shutting down.
I hope this is not true, Devon is a major employer with good paying jobs and has been a great corporate citizen over the years.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard the major on the radio Monday talking about a couple of new businesses that are in the works. He said there will be major announcements coming up. Sounds good.

Anonymous said...

He also suggested that negative commenting regarding the Crowsnest is not good, and I agree. I think every community has things going on, but they are not all talked to death. Maybe we in the CNP need to chill out a bit.

Anonymous said...

This is bad news.
This Gas plant and its employees (Under various owners over the years) did a lot for this community.

Anonymous said...

Yup it is true, Devon is shutting down in the Pass. I personally know people that work for them in the Pass.

Anonymous said...

Another case of an American company leaving town when the going gets tough... They are going to spend their money in the oilsands at Jackfish and polute our air and water but get a better bang for their buck. Typical American company... gotta appease the greedy shareholders whiloe destroying our environment. Great corporate citizen... Devon is a TERRIBLE company...

Anonymous said...

Natural gas fields have a production lifetime of about 25 years.

CNP coal mining went on longer, but I bet most of the production was during the top 20 years.

Does the plant closure mean that the wells will be shut down and no more drilled in the region?

LizM said...

Odd that a company that just spent millions of dollars on an expansion would suddenly pull the plug in an area where there has always been so much sour gas production.

Has there been official news releases, or is this just rampant hearsay?

Anonymous said...

The person that said, Devon pollutes the environment, that is your personal opinion and not fact. They are far from a "terrible company", they gave so much money to the community for things like playgrounds and events. Nasty talk like that is why so may companies do not want to come to the Pass or leave.

To the person that asked will the wells shut down, everything is being torn down over the next six months so they will not reopen.

Crowsnest Pass Home said...

Personally I know from my own experience on council Devon did a tremendous amount for this community.
We would be very blessed if we ever found a company like them to come to the Pass.
Most people do not realize but one third of our ski hill is on Devon property.

Mike said...

Anon @ Apr 04, 10:47:00 PM:
Why does Devon being an "American Company" have anything to do with anything? Would it make any difference if Devon was a Chinese company? How about a UAE, British or Russian company? There's some Canadian owned companies out there that do pretty awful things. Would you slag Devon if they were Canadian? I take offense to your stereotypical labelling based on which country the company was founded in.
Bottom line is, the local management of Devon with the support and blessing of the Calgary offices did a lot of positive things for this community. They've, as stated above, donated money and volunteer hours for good causes, provided a good source of tax revenue and have, for many years, been a good local employer for workers with growing families.
Devon was a great company for many reasons. At the end of the day, they're a business. Businesses need to be profitable. If they aren't profitable with no chance of recovering in the forseeable future they need to start eliminating costs. Natural gas prices (their end product) are at an all-time low and will be for a long time, therefore they can't stay in continuous operation only to lose more money in a day than most people might make in a lifetime. Plus the plant is old and is going to need more money to keep it safe and efficient to operate. It served it's purpose throughout it's life and exceeded it's original expected life span. It's a sad thing but when it's time it's time. Old sour plants all over the province are going to be shutting down over the next decade for the same reason (Windfall, Lone Pine and Balzac are all examples of decomissioned sour plants).
Apr 04, 10:47:00 PM: The next time you go blaming Americans or anyone of any nationality for an unfortunate occurence you might want to do your research and homework.

Mike