Companies now bidding for oilsands rights in Sask.
Last Updated: Thursday, August 16, 2007 | 3:18 PM ET
CBC News
In another sign Saskatchewan could someday have an Alberta-style oilsands industry, companies have started paying the province millions for the right to look for the oily material.
On Thursday, the province said it held its first-ever public offering of oilsands rights as part of its August sale of petroleum and gas rights.
The August sales for all oil and gas rights raised about $38 million for the provincial treasury.
That includes six oilsands exploration licences that attracted $3.3 million.
Until the August sale, companies looking specifically for oilsands didn't have to pay the province for an exploration permit.
In a news release, Government Relations Minister Harry Van Mulligen called the sale historic and said it "heralds the beginning of a potential new oilsands industry in Saskatchewan."
Saskatchewan doesn't have any commercial oilsands projects like those in its western neighbour, but companies such as Oilsands Quest hope there could be billions of dollars worth of the stuff in the province's northwest corner.
Oilsands Quest has been exploring in the northwest for several years and, under the old procedure, wasn't required to bid for rights.
In the August sale, the highest bid for an oilsands parcel came from Petroland Services Ltd., which paid $1 million for an oilsands exploration licence on about 9,000 hectares of land north of the Clearwater River in the province's northwest.
The other company that successfully bid for oilsands exploration permits, again for land in the northwest, was Cavalier Land Ltd.
The province holds sales of oil and gas rights six times a year.
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