Background
In areas surveyed and homesteaded early in Alberta's history all sub-soil resource rights belong to the land owner, but in the areas surveyed later or in the massive crown land areas of the northern half of the province where the current productive oil fields are located, the Crown, represented by the provincial government, owns all sub-soil resources.
Unlike many other oil producing jurisdictions such as Saudi Arabia or Norway, Alberta does not have a government oil company that owns and exploits all petroleum resources. Instead privately-owned oil companies of various sizes, from inside and outside Canada are encouraged to drill for oil and gas or mine oilsands on Crown land, and in exchange pay a royalty. Royalty rates have fluctuated widely over Alberta's history, but they were most recently lowered during the early 1990s to encourage investment despite the low price of oil at that time. Internal government reviews since then have maintained that the royalty rate was appropriate. However, growing public preassure led Premier Ed Stelmach of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives to call for an external review in 2007.
Read more about this topic: Alberta Royalty Review
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