Companies call for oilsands development freeze: report

For the first time, major oil producers are calling on the Alberta government to introduce a partial moratorium on oilsands development in the province’s north, according to a newspaper report.

Companies including Petro-Canada, Suncor and Shell Canada signed a private letter last month asking the province to freeze land lease licences until 2011 in three areas around Fort McMurray that have not yet been developed, the Globe and Mail said Monday.


The provincial government sells the licences to allow companies to find and produce crude.

“Further granting of new surface and sub-surface rights would continue to reduce the available options for the establishment of new conservation areas that would serve to accomplish a balanced suite of regional outcomes,” reads the letter obtained by the newspaper.

CBC