With Cypress County property taxes due today, some major natural gas companies in the region are scrambling to make arrangements before the deadline.
Last week, county council granted two requests from major oilpatch companies asking to be transferred to monthly instalment tax payment plans without penalty so they could better manage cash flow.
Canlin Energy and Pinecliff Energy both made the request stating that credit facilities and financing from major banks had dried up following supreme court decision that states well-reclamation liabilities can move ahead of secured creditors in court proceedings.
Pinecliff requested that its $1.16-million property tax bill for 2019 be paid off in equal payments by Sept. 2020, but councillors approved a four-month schedule.
That mimics provisions extended on the same day to Canlin Energy, which will be allowed to pay its $2.96-million bill in equal parts by the end of February 2020.
Those totals include reductions under a provincial government program to eliminate the education portion of tax bills on qualifying shallow natural gas wells and pipelines. That would reduce bills up to 35 per cent, and the province is also promising longer term changes to assessment practice to reflect declining economic value of the wells, as well as new storage protocol agreement to stabilize market prices.
Pinecliff stated in third-quarter financial statements, released this week that it strongly supports the changes to the Nova Gas System brought in by the province and TC Energy last month.
“(It) seemed to have had the desired impact of reducing volatility of AECO prices in October,” the company stated. “From Pine Cliff’s perspective, any steps to lower the volatility in natural gas prices the Company has been dealing with in the past two years is welcomed.”
Canlin is a private corporation that two years ago acquired the well portfolio of Centrica Energy.
