1948: Oilsands Ltd. Bitumount plant becomes property of the Alberta government. Premier Ernest Manning takes all the members of the legislative assembly on a tour of the plant. But the plant is not successful and is shuttered in September.
1950: Minister of Mines and Minerals Nathan Tanner releases the Alberta government’s oilsands policy.
1967: Great Canadian Oil Sands plant opens, with capacity for 45,000 barrels per day. Premier Ernest Manning says, “This is a red-letter day, not only for Canada but for all North America. No other event in Canada’s Centennial year is more important or significant.” Great Canadian Oil Sands eventually becomes Suncor.
1971: Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservatives win the provincial election.
1974: Alberta Oilsands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA) is formed to fund research into the extraction and upgrading of bitumen; Syncrude’s Mildred Lake plant north of Fort McMurray opens
1980: Federal government begins National Energy Program, removing world crude oil price from first 45,000 barrels per day of oilsands production.
1985: Federal government deregulates oil prices, allowing companies to sell at market value.
Peter Lougheed retires.
Don Getty becomes premier
1988: Federal government promises $1.4 billion in grants and loan guarantees to kick-start the $4.1 billion OSLO (the Other Six Leases Operation) oilsands project north of Fort McMurray. The project was to include an upgrader near Redwater that would produce 85,000 barrels of synthetic crude a day.
1990: Oilsands accounts for 25 per cent of Alberta’s oil production
Federal government reneges on promise to fund OSLO, which results in its permanent shelving.
1992: Ralph Klein becomes premier.
Oilsands production 375,000 barrels a day.
1997: The generic oilsands royalty is introduced. Prior to this, royalties for oilsands projects were prescribed in separate contracts for each project. New regime levies royalties of one per cent of gross revenues until all project costs were paid off, then rising to 25 per cent of net revenues.
Average price of oil about $19 for the year
2000: Average price of oil close to $30 for the year
2002: Canada supplants Saudi Arabia as chief supplier of oil to the U.S.
2003: Global energy experts re-evaluate oilsands reserves from five-billion barrels to 179-billion barrels
2006: Oilsands production 1.1 million barrels a day
Ralph Klein steps down.
Ed Stelmach becomes premier
2007: Royalty review proposes oilsands producers pay royalties on sliding scale from one to nine per cent of gross revenues before the payout completion of a project depending on the price of oil and from 25 to 40 per cent of net revenue after payout depending on the oil price.
2010: Provincial government buys an ad in Washington Post to take Alberta’s case for the Keystone XL pipeline to carry Alberta oilsands oil to Gulf of Mexico refineries directly to U.S. lawmakers.
2010-2011: Bitumen royalties hit 10 per cent of total government revenues
2011: Government announces $6 billion upgrader/refinery in the Industrial Heartland northeast of Edmonton.
Alison Redford becomes premier.
Jan. 2013: Redford coins the term ‘bitumen bubble’ to describe the difference between the price Alberta receives for diluted bitumen and the world price of conventional oil