TORONTO – Alberta needs to buy as many as 7,000 rail cars if it wants to meet its goal of shipping an additional 120,000 barrels of oil a day, says Premier Rachel Notley. In a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade Thursday, Notley said her province is prepared to buy roughly 80 locomotives, with each train pulling 100 to 120 cars. This extra capacity will allow the province to transport 30 per cent more crude-by-rail than current levels, and would help narrow the price gap by $4 a barrel and generate an additional $1 million a day for Ottawa. She says the plunging price of oil has reached a “crisis” point for her province and her government is prepared to make the purchase on its own, with or without the federal government’s help. “Alberta will buy the rail cars ourselves to move this oil,” she told the group of business leaders. “And we’re not wasting any time.” Notley anticipates a deal will be announced in a few weeks, noting that the costs will be recouped through royalties and selling the new shipping capacity. She didn’t give estimates on the cost of the cars but industry experts suggest that […]
