VIEWS OF PLAINS ZOOM TO OIL PUMP



DRILLING RIGS



PUMPS



OLD DERRICK W/SIGN



OIL PUMP BUSINESS STREETS



CU BANK SIGNS



OIL PUMP



CHECKOUT COUNTER AT SUMPERMARKET



PEOPLE ENTERING HOSPITAL



OIL PUMP ALBERTA FLAG ZOOM IN TO CAPITOL



ALBERTA'S LEGISLATURE



AERIALS



SANDS AGAINST THE SKY



ROTARY DIGGER MINING THE SANDS



DRILLING RIG



aficery, pipes, etc



in shot



silhouette-sunset



TRAIN SHOT: RUNNING SHOT OF TANK CARS



OIL PUMP AGAINST SUNSET



"The U-S became Alberta's best customer because eastern Canada found it cheaper to import its oil..until the arab's recently raised the price. Now Canada wants to hold onto this oil..which costs eastern Canada only about 1/2 the current world price of $12.00 a barrel."



Peter Lougheed, Alberta premier



"The key issue is that, even with the reductions of exports, unless we find sufficient and significant new discoveries of oil in our nation, we're in for an energy shortage very quickly."



PETER LOUGHED, ALBERTA HREMIER: "The key issue is that, even with the reductions of exports, unless we find sufficient and significant new discoveries of oil in our nation, we're in for an energy shortage very quickly."



(SOF Stanley Miller, Independent Driller)



"We've lost about 40 deep rigs; we've lost probably most of our deep-rig capacity. We've lost about 50% of our geophysical crews...and this is going to bitehard for the future. It guarantees that Canada's going to be a not importer of oil by the 1980 period."




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: For more than a century, Alberta was just farming and ranching country...the western edge of the Canadian prairies. Then, in 194 oil was discovered. Since then, Alberta hasn't been the same.

Oil companies (mostly U-S owned oil companies have been producing millions of barrels a day here...and it's made Alberta rich. Under Canadian law, provinces own their own resources, which means the oil companies pay Alberta for the oil they pump...and the royalties paid come to 400-million dollars a years. Oil has changed the skyline of one-time cowowns like Edmonton and Calgary. Oil has createda prosperous business climate, where retail sales are high..a prospers banking climate, where interest rates are high. Oil has been good to consumers, too. Alberta is the only Canadian province without a sales tax, and with a population of only 1 1/2 million, there's ample money for free medical care, free hospitalization, even free glasses and hearing aids.

Alberta's oil boom may not last, though, because, while it may have been good for Alberta, it has created a furor in the federal government in Ottawa...largely because until now, almost half of the oil has been sold to the United States.

The Alberta government feels that this, coupled with a new restrictive tax policy on oil, will kill the incentive for further drilling:
Perhaps the most significant new discovery is in the "tar sands" of Northern Alberta. Miles and miles of oil-saturated sand. Many geologists say there's more oil here than in the entire Middle East. But extracting from the sand is costly. And oil companies won't do it on a large scale without attractive profits or tax incentives. Nor will there be as much conventional exploration. A lot of oilmen are pulling
Keeping Canadian Oil for Canadian use will keep the country self-sufficient, says Otawa. But not all Canadians agree. The Alberta Government feels the export curbs... coupled with a new restrictive tax policy will kill the incentive for further drilling:
Prime Minister Trudeau is apparently determined to keep Canadian Oil in Canada...even though most of the oil going to Eastern Canada has to go by rail...As yet, there's no pipeline, to Eastern Canada...only to the United States, which, it appears, will/have to learn to do without Canadian Oil.

And when these wells run dry, if there are no new discoveries, Canada may have to do without as well. Fred Briggs, NBC News, Edmonton Alberta.

The only way to get Alberta oil to eastern Canada is by rail or by pipelines that go through the United States. That's expensive. If the world price of oil drops, eastern Canada may well find Middle Eastern oil cheaper than Alberta's. And with U-S sales out off, Alberta's oil won't be doing anyone much good.

Fred Briggs, NBC News, Edmonton, Alberta