Ottawa Could Buy Alberta Oil to Rescue Industry, RBC Says
- RBC floats letting drillers sell unproduced oil to government
- Government would be refunded when oil is actually produced
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As Canada’s oil producers wait for a bailout to aid the hurting sector, one research firm has a suggestion: Sell crude to the government.
RBC Capital Markets said that an aid package could allow companies that shut in production to sell barrels of oil that they’re not producing to the federal government at a mutually agreed upon market price. They will be free to actually produce that crude later on, when prices are better, and refund the government the revenue it paid them earlier, smoothing out the producers’ revenue and “leaving taxpayers whole.”