Is Alberta getting ripped off?
- Details
- Published on Friday, 05 October 2018 11:40
- Written by editor
Alberta's oil is being sold off for a song
Are Albertans getting a fair price for their oil? It's a big question, but once you take a close look at the numbers — like James Wilt did this week — it's hard to argue that they are.For example: the 30 biggest oilsands operations in the province (responsible for 95 per cent of production) together brought in $53.5 billion in revenue last year.
Albertans' share? $2.37 billion.
Regan Boychuk, a member of the province’s 2015 Oil Sands Expert Group, described this royalty structure as paying for costs with “free oil,” in which enormous amounts of oil revenue go unassessed for royalty payments.
Compared to other jurisdictions, such as Norway and Saudi Arabia, Albertans are collecting a tiny fraction of the profits derived from their oil wealth.
You can find James's investigation here.
Read on for more of this week's top stories.
Emma Gilchrist
Editor-in-Chief, The Narwhal
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