The highlights of the province’s three-point plan include the following.

• A drilling royalty credit for new conventional oil and natural gas wells. This one-year program will provide a $200-per-metre-drilled royalty credit to companies on a sliding scale based on their production levels from last year. This will ensure that the maximum benefits will be available for small and mid-sized producers, while freeing up available capital for all companies.
• A new well incentive program, which offers a maximum five-per-cent royalty rate for the first year of production from new oil or gas wells. This one-year program is intended to help free up cash flow, and in turn, help provide access to the capital necessary for reinvestment by Alberta’s oil and gas industry.
• To encourage the clean-up of inactive oil and gas wells, the province will invest $30 million in a fund committed to abandoning and reclaiming old well sites. This will reduce the environmental footprint of the energy sector by returning well sites to their former states, while also helping to keep industry service crews at work.

“While we cannot make up for the impact that global financial markets are having on Alberta, we are doing what we can,” said Energy Minister Mel Knight. “This short-term incentive program introduces innovative ways to help spur activity in our energy drilling and service sector during this economic downturn.”