Alberta's Promise

PSAC is coming out with an advertising program to try to lobby the Alberta Conservatives to review the competitiveness of the Alberta Oil Gas Industry. PSAC is an industry association for oil & gas service companies engaged in the exploration, drilling, completion & operations related industries.

The Fraser Institute released a survey June 24th 2009 & had this to say about the state of investment in the Alberta Oil & Gas Industry.

“Populist anti-energy ambiance copied from Alaska; unskilled, uneducated,and inaccessible leadership with out-of-control regulatory expansion.”

“Surface access driven by rural wealth transfer policies.”

“Royalties too high, basin over-drilled. Royalties must be reduced.”

“The government has placed punitive royalties on production within the province. The companies enjoyed a few good years of profits and in turn get nailed with punitive royalties.

The government has an acidic relationship with firms … it must return the royalty rates to the original levels and look at adding incentives for the unconventional resources.”

“They take the industry for granted and don’t look for ways to encourage activity.”
“The royalty changes were made without consultation and without understanding the potential consequences.”
“Alberta needs to reverse the New Royalty Framework if it wants to have any credibility as a business friendly province that honors existing agreements with energy companies.”

Needless to say, the Alberta government has many bridges to mend with the industry in the province. Having an active exploration industry provides many other opportunities for citizens of Alberta. People who have jobs will spend money earned in their communities on goods & services to help our province cope during this global recession.

Hopefully the citizens of Alberta can convince our elected politicians that they need to fix this mess they made.