Alberta announces royalty program as part of plan to double oilsands production

The Alberta government is rolling out a new plan to attract investment into the province's oil sands. They announced a royalty incentive program aimed at helping double the current oil sands production goal by 2035 by easing the costs of launching new projects. The CBC's Stephanie Cram is following this story for us. And so, Stephanie, what does this royalty incentive program look like? Well, this Royalty Incentive Program is meant to allow investors to pay less in royalties over the first few years of a project launching. In the first five years, the royalties will sit at 2% as companies are paying off their investment costs. After that, from years 6 through 10, the royalty revenues will increase by 1% each year until it reaches the maximum 6%. Now, the goal is to attract more investors to to Alberta and help Alberta double its oil production to 8 million barrels per day, generating about $205 billion in additional revenues by 2040. Premier Danielle Smith says that there is a lot of competition in the oil industry. Let's hear what she had to say. To meet our goal of doubling oil sands production in the coming decade or so, we need hundreds of billions of dollars in new investment. And we need to do that while competing with the United States and Venezuela because the competition for global investment is real. Major energy projects require billions of dollars in capital and years of planning. Investors have choices about where they put that money. And we want them to put it here in Alberta. Now, the premier also said that it's not just oil that they want to double. They're also saying now that they want to double natural gas production by 2035. Now, the oil sands growth program is meant to attract new oil sands investment in Alberta, increase production, fill new pipelines like the Pacific Link pipeline, which was announced earlier this year, and drive economic growth and to boost Alberta's heritage fund savings. Now, the premier also said that those benefits will trick. trickle down to Albertans and that money will go towards things like schools, hospitals, roads and other social services. Now, this program is going to be launching fairly soon by September 2027. Stephanie, thank you. CBC's Stephanie Cram in Edmonton.