Alberta premier Ed Stelmach announced today that the Alberta government has accepted most of the recommendations of a recent review panel and will therefore hike oil and gas royalties by 20%.
The new royalty framework announced today will boost overall royalties by $1.4 billion or 20 per cent in 2010. But Stelmach has rejected a call to impose an oilsands severance tax that established producers would have had to begin paying next year.
The new rates, which will hike royalties from current highs of 35 per cent to a maximum 50 per cent for conventional oil and natural gas, won't take effect until 2009.
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