January 22, 2026 • Alberta, Canada
Alberta's Risky Bitumen Royalties In-Kind (BRIK) Initiative - Infograph
Analyzing the Alberta government's plan to directly sell bitumen globally
📝 FHarbour
💰
$900M
Taxpayer Debt
Authorized borrowing for Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission
🛢️
4M→8M
Production Target
Premier Smith's goal to double oil output (barrels/day)
🚫
0
Industry Support
Major producers/pipelines not calling for this initiative
🚂
2-3X
Price Premium
Cold bitumen shipping could fetch in Asian/European markets
- Alberta government wants to sell bitumen directly via Bitumen Royalty in Kind
- Industry immediately raised concerns about getting less money for taxpayers
- "Not clear exactly what the problem is that it is intended to solve"
- Pipeline companies reluctant to compete with themselves
- Enbridge optimizing Mainline +400k barrels/day capacity
- Trans Mountain expansion optimizing +400k barrels/day
- 250k barrels/day capacity in smaller southern pipelines
- Total: ~1M barrels/day without new $50-75B pipeline
- Premier Smith's mandate: double output to 8M barrels/day + build 5 pipelines
- Industry strategy: extract profit from existing investments, not big long-term bets
- "Government's vision is out of step with the industry itself"
- Renewable energy sector being negatively impacted by policy changes
- Northern Native Cooperative's cold bitumen shipping via rail (non-combustion market)
- Eavor geothermal tech developed in Alberta now being deployed in Germany/US
- "Government is so focused on increasing production... missing opportunities right under their nose"
- Lack of support for commercialization unlike US subsidy approach
KEY QUOTES
"It's not clear exactly what the problem is that it is intended to solve."
"Nostalgia is not a strategy."
"We have a bad track record in Alberta of doing really interesting innovation... and then the government is nowhere to be found."
"We're really missing an opportunity to continue receiving that kind of investment."
bitumen
Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission
pipelines
Enbridge
Trans Mountain
Danielle Smith
oil production
renewable energy
geothermal
innovation
commercialization
Chris Severson-Baker