Alberta may go it alone to buy trains to move more crude – premier

Alberta is willing to buy trains itself and help clear a backlog of crude oil in the Canadian province if the Canadian government decides not to share costs, Premier Rachel Notley said on Thursday.

Notley, speaking in Calgary to oil well drillers, said Alberta has asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to share costs of adding rail capacity to move an additional 120,000 to 140,000 barrels per day. Notley said Alberta has not received an answer from Ottawa.

“Ottawa needs to join Alberta to help ease the economic pain,” Notley said. “If Ottawa won’t come to the table, then we’ll get it done ourselves .. If it takes buying trains to (move more oil to market) then that’s what we’re going to do.”

Full pipelines have stranded much of Western Canada’s expanding crude output, driving down the price U.S. refineries are willing to pay.

Reuters reported exclusively earlier that Alberta has asked Ottawa to share the $350 million capital cost, and $2.6 billion in operating costs over three years of buying rail capacity to move more crude, starting in July 2019.