Thread regarding Imperial Oil Limited layoffs

@2gh
This is big boy stuff, policy and jobs for so many people and the economy and governance in an entire province. Its word vommit on to the uninformed.

@2k3 well you have something to rely on when you lose your job then.

@2hw mine is still healthy and moist.. not old and wrinkly like you face.

@2hs should probably book a gyno for your va---a as well, that's still covered.

I'm crying hard.. need to book physio for my poor thumbs. Ohhh wait,they are cutting back benefits coverage. How wonderful! 🥲

@2gh cry about it

@2es this thread was to give a shout out to Ray and his oversized ba--s and it somehow devolved into a pi----g match between novelists

Word vomits cluttered this thread and my fingers cramped from scrolling through. Is it 2 AI models showdown? Can we please keep it short & sweet?

@e5 don’t get me started on these new tools that EM kept introducing but they don’t really work… it’s ridiculous trying to find the simplest of info, and the advise i kept getting is to go to the ServiceNow portal 🫩 really???!!

@29n Wrong on every single point — let's dismantle this doom fantasy piece by piece with actual facts.
Solar is NOT "the cheapest marginal cost" forcing everything else out. Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for solar PV is cheap only when the sun shines (~25-30% capacity factor in most places). Once you factor in firming costs — batteries, overbuild, or backup gas — the system cost skyrockets. IEA and EIA data show dispatchable sources like natural gas combined-cycle remain cheaper and more reliable for 24/7 grids. Texas proves this: natural gas still provides ~43-44% of ERCOT generation in 2025 (down slightly from prior years due to growth in all sources), while solar is only ~13-15% annually despite massive additions. Solar "gluts" the grid midday and crashes prices (often negative), but gas ramps up for evenings and winters — that's why Texas added batteries hand-in-hand with solar, not instead of gas.
Peak demand in Texas is NOT "nearly 50% higher during the day." ERCOT's duck curve shows afternoon/evening peaks driven by AC, but the absolute record peaks are often early evening when solar is fading. Texas has abundant gas; droughts hurt hydro/nuclear cooling marginally, but gas plants dominate reliability — solar helped in summers, but batteries and gas prevented blackouts. Prices spike when renewables underperform (wind droughts, cloudy days), not because of "beloved coal." Coal is dying from cheap gas, not solar.
Saudi Arabia's "tiny" solar additions? They're adding ~6-7 GW in 2025, pushing total renewables to ~12-13 GW — impressive, but Saudi power demand is exploding (data centers, population, industry). Renewables displace some domestic oil burn (~500-700 kb/d max long-term), but this frees oil for export at market prices, not "dumping" it. Saudi is still pumping record crude, maintaining OPEC+ discipline to support prices. No "glut" from this — global supply growth comes from US shale, Brazil, Guyana.
Your 1-2% pivot ki-ling oil? Laughable. Global oil demand grows ~700 kb/d in 2025 and 2026 per IEA (down from prior years due to EVs/efficiency, but still growth). Non-OPEC+ adds 1.2-1.7 mb/d annually. Renewables displace some power-gen oil (already minor in most places), but transport (70% of demand) barely budges — EVs are ~20% of new sales globally, not replacing the 1.8 billion ICE fleet overnight.
Pakistan/India/China/Europe examples? Pakistan's solar bo-m crashed utility revenues because subsidized grid power couldn't compete — classic policy failure, not proof oil dies. India's coal is subsidized but still building 20+ GW new plants because renewables can't meet baseload growth. China added more coal capacity than the world added renewables last year. Europe's "50% solar in heatwaves" is cherry-picking — annual renewables ~40-45%, gas/nuclear fill gaps, and prevented blackouts when French nukes failed.
Oil & gas "not going away but margins under pressure"? Wrong — margins are cyclical. Current Brent ~$62-64/bbl (Nov 2025) is low due to OPEC+ unwinding cuts + non-OPEC growth, but demand isn't collapsing. IEA sees plateau ~2030 at best in aggressive scenarios; reference cases grow to 2050.
Imperial layoffs? Announced Sept 2025: ~20% workforce cut (~900-1,000 jobs) by 2027, mostly Calgary corporate, relocating/offshoring to Houston/India for efficiency and cost savings — explicitly to become "lowest-cost barrel" while maintaining or increasing production. Same at Conoco (20-25% global cuts post-merger synergies) and others. Not "oil dying" — classic post-bo-m consolidation + AI/automation. Production guidance unchanged/up. Alberta unemployment ~7-8%, but energy sector employment stable ~200k; losses offset by efficiency gains.
Norway? High taxes fund sovereign wealth (~$1.7 trillion), but active production continues profitably. Low royalties? They have some of the highest effective rates globally via taxes.
"Your job security linked to lower production"? Absolute nonsense. Alberta's economy thrives on high production + reasonable prices. Restricting supply (like OPEC) supports prices but ki-ls investment/jobs long-term. Canada's issue is pipelines/regulations stifling growth, not "too much oil."
The "pivot" is real but slow — renewables grow fastest, but oil demand plateaus, doesn't crash. Layoffs today are restructuring for profitability in a mature industry, not the apocalypse. Imperial/Exxon are leaner, meaner, and ramping oilsands output.
Keep dreaming of 2015 redux. Reality: oil survives, adapts, and employs Albertans for decades.

@25k
So you answered your own question, solar is the cheapest marginal cost of production and will get the first priority for investment when possible. Only when no other option is available,will any other power source will be considered. Peak demand is during daylight hours for AC AND commercial operations of all kinds, nearly 50% higher during the day and that is when solar shines as a power source. If you use the baseload example, you need to design your grid with thermal generation for peak periods and are left with a 50% surplus at night because baseload cannot be ramped down in a matter of hours and that cost of surplus during the night will be money from your pocket. Texas has all the oil and gas it wants, and it suffers from droughts especially bad in summers so yeah, your beloved coal doesn’t work well nor does nuclear during peak demand season and when that happens, electricity prices rise nearly 10 fold. What saves the Texas grid is solar, at peak demand time the sun shines and gluts the grid with power driving down the prices. And the displaced oil and gas is EITHER sold to another su---r somewhere else or sold at low prices which means much lower gas related employment and profits leading to low investment.
Arabia also knows that, and every GW of solar it adds frees up oil used previously for power generation which it intends to sell to some other su---r who is willing to pay for the overpriced oil, that is what smart money would do. Consider it a type of national energy debottlenecking/ optimization to have additional surplus oil without making large capital investments immediately for decades to come. Oil is still there as a backup during night and when solar isn’t available, like a UPS for the entire country and for nights but the pivot is significant. As for production of oil, Arabia has been maintaining discipline and preventing an oil glut for last many years, if they hadn’t you would see a repeat of 2020 and Alberta in complete chaos as its production became essentially worthless in a matter of weeks. Those bumper profits at Imperial and Exxon would have disappeared just like in 2020 when Exxon had its FIRST LOSS in nearly 4 decades.
Year 2014-2015 had a mere 1% global surplus glut and the prices collapsed 50% in 14 months going below $30 in 2016. 2020 had nearly 5-10% surplus glut and prices became negative. All solar needs is a 1-2% oil pivot and you can kiss the oil sector profits and employment goodbye like it was in 2015 when all capital projects stopped, unemployment was off the chart and everyone was running away from the oil sector while Fort Mac real estate collapsed nearly 30-50% in a mere 3 years. 2022 was an anomaly thanks to Ukraine war but that shock is gone and we are back to prices dropping and people losing their jobs, its 2015 all over again in 2025. Imperial oil is laying off, Conoco is reducing workforce by 25% everywhere, same with Cenovus and Suncor already has been reducing head count with its new CEO poached from Imperial. That is the reason this site is so abuzz with comments.
Arabian tiny output addition of 12 GW is comparable to the entire grid of Alberta, 2 years of expansion means 20+GW which is the entire Ontario grid. All that Arabian oil not being burnt for electricity especially in the summer is going to get dumped into the market and everyone will be commenting on this site coz they got laid off and the oil that Alberta produces becomes worthless.
Pakistan is adding the same 10GW every year, and suddenly their public utilities are underwater because the revenues have collapsed due to the solar adoption. People can’t afford coal based electricity coz the state was forced to remove subsidies to remain solvent and get loans from IMF or the country collapses. So people pivoted to solar because no one can afford unsubsidized public utility electricity which costs more than the rent for the poor and all those Chinese PV factories constructed with the help of Keynsian economics are sending incredibly cheap panels to Pakistan. The country had to apply import tariffs to prevent so much solar install and the public utilities going bankrupt overnight. The savings on solar investment is close to 30-50% return, that is how ridiculously cheap solar economics is.
India reached its goal of 50% power generation from solar in 2030, 5 years in advance and is now aiming to double that. It is building a massive solar farm the size of 6 Paris cities on wasteland to rapidly add solar which costs lower than coal based thermal power even with battery storage. Coal is heavily subsidised in India to keep the electricity affordable, with solar those subsidies will be phased out and reinvested in more renewables to accelerate the solar pivot.
China is way ahead of anyone with renewables and most cars in major cities are already hydrids and some EVs. All that solar install which is beyond any other nation and new efficient coal power plants as backups have already reduced emissions and the demand for hydrocarbons is dropping slightly already.
Europe is the same, with Russian gas no longer available and LNG being very expensive, renewable especially solar is becoming very attractive. The summer heat waves is when solar shines nearly 50% power consumption coming from solar and East West grid is allowing sunny areas to send power to the darker areas because of different daylight hours. French nukes were shutting down or curtailing because the river don’t have enough water or water temperature was too high for adequate cooling but solar stepped in and completely took over and prevented any price spikes because of shortages or grid collapse. Now all the planned data centres will use power, Europe wants to repurpose the heat release from the data centres and use it for community heating networks during winters.
South Africa had major electricity shortages a few years ago but they commissioned solar plants because it can be done quickly with all the panels from that Chinese massive surplus factory capacity and suddenly there are no blackouts or shortages. In the old days, installing thermal plants would take forever and cost a fortune and now it doesn’t matter.
Oil and Gas or even coal isn’t going away, but this isn’t 2006 and if the oil and gas prices spike, then push for solar accelerates dramatically because the rate of return through savings becomes very very attractive while providing an inflation or price spike hedge. As you finally recognized, oil prices are much lower after inflation adjustment compared to 2006 while every thing else like fuel, food, housing, internet and power costs much more. That should be your first warning, the more oil that is produced or substituted, the lower the prices go and unlike 2006-07, there are alternatives including for transport. So yeah, profit margins on oil production will always be under pressure to remain competitive and that means more people on this site talking about layoffs.
More oil means low prices and low profits, low investment and lower employment while lower royalties for Alberta government. It will become increasingly more complicated to find a su---r who will pay high prices for oil and gas. 2006-07 prices were supported by Chinese and Indian oil purchases, that is the reason Nexen was purchased by CNOOC. The enthusiasm for oil especially Canadian oil is lot lower.
Imperial is laying off people now is precisely because of more oil availability while profits are dropping. Employees are the means for profit, if you can’t produce profits you will lose your job or get offshored to BTC and Quest.
YOUR JOB SECURITY and health of Albertan economy and government is DIRECTLY linked to lower production of oil, not more. Else get ready for another 2015 style blood bath.
The Laissez-faire free economy cannot compete with the protected industries of China or India which already have very low labour costs and cheap availability of capital and have done everything on a very large scale to get economies of scale that the rest of the world can’t match. This is why these countries are dominating so many sectors like shipping controlled by China/ Japan/ SK, electronics again dominated mainly by China/ SK with some Japan, vehicle manufacture especially in Japan and SK which have produced very successful conventional cars and large chunk of the market which Chinese players are selling Hybirds and pure EV locally in large numbers also potentially coming to Canada with lower import duties, renewable and electrical equipment. There is a reason, BTC and quest are taking over lot of lower and mid skill functions at Exxon/ Imperail, they are much cheaper and people are left scrambling for their job at Imperial and they will do it on a much larger scale to get higher efficiencies.
Your fantasies about inefficiencies because of Keynsian economics and protectionism is not saving the free market industries from the Chinese or Indian players, These companies are very competitive financially speaking and that doesn’t bode well for Imperial employees.

And regarding Norway, you answered your own question. The royalties are low, the prices are lot lower than 2006-07 while everything else is more expensive so things are only going to get harder. While Norway has just saved trillions and invested it in non-hydrocarbon companies providing diversification industries where profits are rising because of inflation. There is only 1 way Exxon employs these people, it needs to make lots of profits via high oil prices or it’s a blood bath and people like you sitting on this forum worrying about their jobs.

@257 The renewables "pivot" is overhyped market-driven economics, not the death knell for oil/coal. Texas added massive solar because it's now the cheapest marginal power in a deregulated market (often backed by federal subsidies), but natural gas remains ~44% of generation and the real displacer of coal—solar shines during peak AC demand but can't replace baseload without trillions in storage. Saudi Arabia's solar buildout is real but tiny (~12 GW added mostly in 2025) against 400+ GW of oil/gas capacity; it's hedging and exporting green image while pumping record crude. Inflation-adjusted oil prices today ($75–80 WTI) are nowhere near "18–19 years ago"—2006–07 averaged $60–70 nominal ($100–110 in 2025 dollars).

Norway's social safety net is generous, but funded by that punishing tax regime private companies like Imperial never faced; Canadian firms operate in a competitive North American market and adjust workforces accordingly when prices crash. Protectionism built China/India's industries, but it also bred inefficiency—Canada/Alberta chose open markets, attracting massive foreign investment that created jobs and growth, even if it meant bo-m-bust cycles without a Norwegian-style war chest.

Canada (specifically Alberta) could never replicate Norway's $2.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund because the fiscal regimes are fundamentally incompatible: Norway captures 78% of upstream petroleum profits through a punishing special tax (plus state ownership via Equinor), channeling nearly all net revenues into the fund while maintaining high general taxes and VAT to fund current spending. Alberta's royalties and taxes, by design, take a far smaller share (10–40% gross/net depending on price and project, averaging much lower historically) to attract massive private capital needed for the capital-intensive oilsands—capital that would never flow under a Norwegian-style tax burden, as global majors like Exxon operate in a competitive North American market and would simply invest elsewhere.

@243
And yet Norway is hoarding its massive TRILLION dollar saving fund investing in all sorts of businesses despite a tiny population.
As for renewables, well here is a shock to you princess, Texas, an oil and gas producer 2.5 times size of Alberta as well as Arabia, THE BIGGEST OIL exporter in the world with the lowest global production operation cost is expanding solar at a rate it will make your eyes bleed because coal cannot compete with renewables in terms of operating costs without subsidies, even with battery addition and that technology is not even mature yet and costs are dropping yearly. If you think your coal will save you, you are mistaken, it will only leave users financially uncompetitive. Texas and Arabia are pivoting to solar very rapidly and during the summer during peak demand, Texas electrical grid remains online by solar because majority of peak demand coincides with peak solar generation as temperatures rise during the day and businesses open for operation during daytime business hours. Thermal power plants don't work well in the summer because there isn't enough cool water in rivers to keep them at peak output requiring coal curtailment.
Oil prices are what they were nearly 18-19 years ago, after adjusting for inflation, it can be argued they are lower. Smart money is making massive investment in renewables as the operating costs is absurdly low. Oil, Gas and coal has its place, but that industry will always remain under cost pressure.
Norway also has a significant safety net, if the people lose jobs they don't starve and employers can't just throw employees out wi--y nilly. A private corp will do that when it is advantageous and Imperial is doing that, others have been doing the same for decades, this isn't new.
There is no left wing clap trap, just facts and profit motive and you are watching nations which have developed protective policies along with keynsian economic strategies to protect and regulate private companies and produce state champions which can compete globally dominating entire sectors. If you rely on the right wing libertarian nonsense, companies will either fold after bankruptcy or move shop abroad.
China, India etc didn't start catching up economically without protectionism and left wing policies combined with keynsian strategies to build local corporations. Now the critical base of employees with adequate skills is large enough that moving operations there leads to low cost for mid to low skill employees which is a large chunk of the workforce.

@20n Norway is pretty left leaning, green and invested in their populace and they lost just as many jobs.

@jv
Well everyone at the company uses a mobile which was designed abroad mainly in USA China and India or Japan or SK, same with windows, same with vehicles that they drive, same with TV and electronics they use. And most of the stuff was manufactured abroad in China.
When Imperial built Kearl, lot of stuff came from abroad and was even causing transportation problems because the roads were being blocked by protestors. So many major engg companies have been offshoring work to India for so long. All the automation vendors like Emerson or Honeywell have been sending design to their Indian offices and importing the electronic hardware from China. Same applies to the telecom equipment.
A lot of of the heavy equipment used at the site is also made abroad.
So this sudden act of patriotism is just lip service with no commitment. It has been happening to all Canadian companies for multiple decades. Nortel, once a leader in telecom equipment had presence in Ottawa and Calgary making local electronics, RIM/ Blackberry used to be a global player. Bombardier also showed some potential to compete with the likes of Airbus Boeing and Embraer for some models keeping Canadian aerospace industry alive. SNC was also a global player despite the bribing issues, they gave Canada a recognizable foot print in infrastructural projects and everything disappeared over the last 25 years.
Just like NVidia, Canada also had ATI which was one of the dominant computer players in its sector and could have taken NVidia the world's most valuable company today to become a global behemoth, instead it was sold off to AMD which has also become a very successful player, both Nvidia and AMD CEOs are cousins.
Conservatives turned Canada into mere resource supplier for oil and gas, potash, minerals, and some manufacturing in the East gradually eroding its footprint as a leading global player with no long term vision and Intellectual Property development which would give it an edge. Resource exports gave Canada especially in the Harper years the Dutch disease and that short term thinking hollowed Canadian industries for cheap imported goods and Alberta's desire to give Eastern Canada the birdie.
There were so many plans during the Harper days to build upgraders in Alberta along with bitumen production to produce higher value synthetic crude for export. Instead now majority of Canadian oil export is dilbit which incidentally is lower value and needs more space in the pipeline because of the diluent.
Conservatives and Alberta needs to look in the mirror and own up to their short term thinking sins.
Even today, Canada could have made big renewable investment along with hydropower to produce large quantities of cheap power and invest in data centres that are partially owned by Canadian government as representatives of the people to keep Canada in the AI game and produce a globally competitive sectors after a long time and unlike Imperial/ Exxon, maintain a government policy to hire Canadians rather than offshore jobs.
Canada has another opportunity to invest in things like enlarge its Canada wide railway network, manufacture aeroplanes and submarines under license for the services and atleast build some industrial capacity and employment. Always remember, a private business looks for the ways to maximize profit. If that means offshoring jobs, then that is what it would be. And that applies to everyone including Imperial/ Exxon, Suncor, CNRL.....

@hw that's true if there are jobs they should be Canadian but many jobs aren't needed.

Operators stand with us. Canadian jobs in Canadian resources should stay in Canada.

The post was liked by three guys from the Bangalore office in India

@ef The favorites are probably who are well-connected. It’s a small world. relationships need to be maintained even after the business has ended.

As though it will make a difference or influence the company to reverse course. The ones they wish to retain, they will. We went through something similar in 2004/2005. Special deals were cut for the favorites, including those who said no to relocating to Calgary. They stayed behind and did better than many who moved here. The system is rigged in favor of the hallowed, highly paid ones.

Is it just me or it's getting difficult to find actual information? I have to search a couple times using different key words combo before finding what I was actually looking for.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

@b4 do you need to walk around with a wheelbarrow to help carry your massive ba--s?

Vote for Ray !!!

Well someone had to do it. I don’t care if they walk me out

We should start go fund me for him

I am looking forward to the next employee forum, if they let us ask our questions in person!

Major props to everyone who’s liked the post as well. Hopefully more people will have the courage to do the same. It won’t change the outcome, but at least we can make things a little less comfortable for them on the way out.

kudos to the guy! so glad that one of us is brave (honest) enough to do it. it’s disgusting how they have converted the intranet site into a social media page with space admins posting articles for the sake of “likes” and the brown-nosers going out of their way to flatter 🤢

Intranet spaces should foster clarity, utility, and genuine communication - a workplace tool meant for collaboration and knowledge-sharing - not mimic the dopamine-driven dynamics of social media.