Alberta says Premier Danielle Smith is in talks with potential overseas heavy oil buyer

The Alberta government says Premier Danielle Smith has been in talks with a multinational oil and petrochemical player about selling two million barrels per month of province-owned heavy oil.It said in a news release that there was a meeting on Monday, but it did not identify the company or say what part of the world it is based in.The province has announced it will collect bitumen royalties in the form of the heavy oil itself, as opposed to cash, which Alberta’s commercial oil and gas agency, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission, can then sell. That means it can combine bitumen royalty barrels with conventional ones it already collects to bring significant petroleum volumes to market and spur private-sector investment.