By Nia Williams
CALGARY, Alberta, March 24 (Reuters) - The Albertagovernment will decide before the end of May which companieswill take over contracts to market the Canadian province'scrude, a spokesman said on Tuesday, after principal marketerNexen Energy decided to shut down worldwide trading operations.
Nexen Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of China's CNOOC Ltd, is closing its crude oil trading division as thecompany cuts jobs in response to plunging global oil prices.
Since June 2013 Nexen has managed and marketed roughly halfthe 70,000 barrels per day of conventional crude that theprovince of Alberta receives in lieu of cash royalties.
Shell Trading Canada, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell,markets 40 percent of the volumes and the Alberta PetroleumMarketing Commission sells the remaining 10 percent directly.
Alberta Energy spokesman Chris Bourdeau said the marketingcontracts were up for renewal anyway by June 1, but Nexen hadsubmitted a bid to be part of the process back in November.
"We were certainly surprised when Nexen made theirannouncement, it's been a good working relationship with them,"Bourdeau said. "They put their name forward and then withdrew."
Nexen has been marketing Alberta royalty barrels since 2007.
Bourdeau said a "fair number" of other companies hadsubmitted bids to market the crude but declined to give names ora specific number.
The Alberta government has the choice to collect eitherbarrels of oil or cash as royalty payments from producers withinthe province, which is home to the world's third-largest energyreserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. (Editing by Richard Chang)
