Energy fattens Alberta coffers

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Oil, gas and mineral royalties and land sales pumped C$7.13 billion in non-renewable resource revenues into the Alberta treasury in the 2002-03 fiscal year — a figure surpassed only by the C$10 billion-plus in 2000-01.

The government said the gusher represented close to one-third of all revenues collected by the province.

Natural gas and gas by-product royalties easily topped the list at C$5.13 billion, up 27 percent from the previous year, while crude oil royalties increased to C$1.18 billion from C$987 million.

Synthetic crude and bitumen royalties dipped fractionally to C$183 million from C$185 million, but sales of government-owned lands dropped to C$566 million from C$970 million.

Output of synthetic crude and bitumen rose for the fourth straight year to more than 740,000 barrels per day from 645,000 bpd in 2001-02.

Energy exports were valued at C$30.5 billion, or 62 percent of all Alberta international exports.