Alberta less attractive for oil and gas investors: survey

Alberta looks less attractive for investors when it comes to oil and gas companies, while neighbouring Saskatchewan is looking better, finds an annual global survey of petroleum-sector executives released by the Fraser Institute.

“The Alberta government has introduced policies that are confusing and possibly costly, creating uncertainty for the oil and gas industry,” says Kenneth Green, senior director of the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Natural Resources and co-author of the survey.

Read: Where Canadian oil will be 10 years from now

This year, Alberta dropped 18 spots to 43rd out of 96 jurisdictions worldwide on the Policy Perception Index, a measure of the extent to which policy deters oil and gas investment.

Saskatchewan, which ranked seventh last year, has ranked as the fourth most attractive jurisdiction in the world to invest in petroleum exploration and production in 2016–behind Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas.

Read: Which countries have the cheapest gas?

The harder they fall…

In 2014, Alberta ranked in the top 15. But it tumbled last year to 25^th, before continuing its downward slide to 43^rd this year (that’s lower than British Columbia, which maintained its 39^th spot overall).

It’s worth noting that the survey was completed before the Canadian government last week approved two pipeline expansions . Also, President-elect Donald Trump’s support of Keystone XL means Alberta’s score could improve in future years.

Still, Alberta earned low marks for regulatory duplication and inconsistencies, high taxation, and uncertain environmental regulations. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan earned high marks from petroleum executives in the areas of fiscal terms, the cost of regulatory compliance, and clear environmental regulations.

In a separate ranking, which only includes jurisdictions with the world’s largest reserves, Alberta has also dropped from 2^nd in 2014 to 4^th this year, behind Texas, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

“Increasingly Alberta is competing with jurisdictions that are more attractive for investment from the oil and gas sector–a worrying trend that will likely negatively impact Canadian jobs and government revenue,” said Taylor Jackson, policy analyst at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the study.

Canadian jurisdiction rankings from the Global Petroleum Survey:

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Province		2016 Rank		2015 Rank
Saskatchewan		1		1
Manitoba		2		2
Newfoundland and Labrador		3		3
British Columbia		4		7
Alberta		5		4
Nova Scotia		6		9
Northwest Territories		7		8
Yukon		8		5
New Brunswick		9		10
Quebec		10		11*

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*NOTE: Ontario was included in the 2015 ranking, but did not generate sufficient survey responses in 2016.