By Nia Williams
CALGARY, Alberta, May 11 (Reuters) - Shell Trading Canada, aunit of Royal Dutch Shell, will take over the task ofmarketing nearly all the barrels of crude oil that the provinceof Alberta receives from producers as royalties.
From June 1, Shell will market 90 percent of the nearly70,000 barrels per day of conventional crude that Alberta takesin lieu of cash royalties, according to a statement on theAlberta Petroleum Marketing Commission (APMC) website.
The APMC will continue to sell the remaining 10 percent.
"We had a competitive process and they (Shell) were thesuccessful bidder. We were looking for things like quality ofservice, pricing and cost," said Richard Masson, APMC's chiefexecutive.
The two-year crude marketing contract will remain in placeeven if Alberta's new left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP)government changes how royalty rates are calculated.
The NDP stunned many in the oil industry by winning alandslide victory in last week's provincial election.
NDP Premier-elect Rachel Notley has pledged to review withinthe next six months the royalties that producers pay to thegovernment for tapping provincially owned oil and gas reserves.
"Practically, for how we collect barrels, things would notchange," Masson said.
The APMC uses almost 5,000 oil-tank batteries and 180pipelines to collect about 17 percent of Alberta's conventionalcrude production as royalties.
Marketers were invited to bid for the contract after NexenEnergy, a wholly owned subsidiary of China's CNOOC Ltd, which previously sold half of Alberta's royaltybarrels, said it will shut down worldwide trading operations inMarch.
Masson said volumes were likely to be lower than 70,000 bpdthis year as royalty rates are affected by the price ofbenchmark crude oil, which has fallen by around 40percent since last June. (Editing by Peter Galloway)
