.png)
A dragline excavator is seen at the Suncor Energy Inc. Fort Hills mine in this aerial photograph taken above the Athabasca oil sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Photographer: Ben Nelms/Bloomberg Canadian oil sands producers are poised to pay an increasing share of their revenue to the government in coming years as surging oil prices allow them to pay off the costs of multibillion dollar well and mining projects earlier than planned, bumping them into a higher royalty bracket. Five oil sands projects reached so-called “post-payout” royalty status last year from “pre-payout” and two more are expected to reach to post-payout each year from 2022 to 2025, the Alberta government said in a budget update Wednesday. A windfall of cash from higher oil has allowed companies to pay off the up-front costs incurred when oil sands well sites or mines were built, sometimes years in the past. Once paid off, oil sands projects are pushed into a higher bracket for royalty payments, meaning a bigger portion of revenue generated by companies goes to the government. Companies themselves have contributed to the trend as they resist building new projects or expanding older ones in order to pay down debt and return […]
CamTrader offers a preview only. View original article. www.bloomberg.com
