Analyst touts Alberta royalty holiday as temporary Canadian crude price crutch

“Over the course of 3.5 months, this game plan could drain Western Canada storage levels by approximately 4.8 million to 7.4 million barrels, or 16 to 25 per cent of estimated operable storage, opening the door to spread normalization.”

The National Energy Board reported exports by rail rose to a record 229,544 bpd in August, up more than 11 per cent from 206,624 bpd in July and 91 per cent from just under 120,000 bpd in August 2017. RBC estimates fourth-quarter rail exports will be about 250,000 bpd.

Last week, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley called on Ottawa to work to increase capacity for oil on rail as a “short- to medium-term” solution to improve market access, arguing the low prices are hurting governments as well as producers.

But Pardy argued Alberta has the power on its own to improve crude oil prices, noting that the benefit of intervening in the market to drain storage from its capacity of about 30 million barrels would be paid back when prices recover and its royalties are restored.

“While we applaud Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s efforts to accelerate crude-by-rail, there may also be a near-term bridge,” he said.

“As a temporary measure, the royalty holiday could be called upon, as needed, until other solutions fall into place, namely incremental crude-by-rail loadings, and Enbridge’s 375,000 bpd Line 3 replacement (pipeline expected to start up in late 2019).”

In its Aug. 31 budget update, Alberta estimated it would have oil royalties of $3.6 billion this year — giving them up for three months could cost about $900 million.

Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd threw cold water on the RBC suggestion.

“We’ve been considering a number of other options for the (price) differential but I can absolutely say this is not one of them that is suggested by the RBC report,” she told reporters.

“These are resources owned by Alberta, we need to keep the value here.”

Canada’s railroads have been reluctant to add locomotives and crews to move oil cars unless producers sign long-term contracts because they fear those customers will disappear as soon as pipeline capacity, considered to be cheaper, is available.

Oilsands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. announced recently it had signed long-term deals to move 100,000 bpd of its own heavy crude oil on Canadian railways to the U.S. Gulf Coast to be refined.

The widening differentials between Canadian oil prices and U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate have also been linked to a reduction in demand as maintenance shutdowns take some refineries off line in the U.S. Midwest (also called PADD II), but observers have lately been discounting that factor.

In a note Monday, analysts with Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. said it doesn’t appear that the shutdowns have had much effect on Canadian oil shipments.

“Digging into the data suggests that crude flows into PADD II increased over the month of October as offline refineries opted to take the cheap barrels and jam them into storage,” the report said.

In his report, Pardy points out that oilsands producers actually pay their Alberta royalties based on a WTI price framework, despite a discount that means many are receiving less for their oil than what it cost to produce it.

Follow @HealingSlowly on Twitter.

— With a file from Dean Bennett in Edmonton.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CVE, TSX:ENB)

Dan Healing, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Analyst touts Alberta royalty holiday as temporary Canadian crude price crutch

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