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Gold/Mining/Energy : Canadian Oil & Gas Companies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yarek Szolomicki who wrote (7220)	3/30/2000 10:36:00 AM
From: Cal Gary	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24927

Producers tell story of tax burden Charles Frank, Calgary Herald When OPEC president Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah called on oil consuming countries to lower gasoline taxes this week -- and stop blaming oil producers for the high price of fuel at gas pumps -- you could hear the cheers resonating through downtown Calgary. That is, of course, one of the messages the Petroleum Communication Foundation, the industry-funded information body which celebrates its 25th anniversary today, has been trying to disseminate since it was founded. "I think for the most part the foundation has done a good job at telling the industry's story," says Jim Gray, Canadian Hunter Exploration Limited chairman and PCF founding member. "But there's still a lot of confusion out there." That might be the understatement of the year. At least with respect to gasoline prices. Local drivers have been casting black looks downtown, where virtually all of the country's oil companies are headquartered. Yet with a world-wide oil shortage, higher gasoline prices shouldn't have come as a surprise. That they did, suggests an ongoing lack of acuity on the part of consumers, not to mention an apparent lack of recognition that 42 per cent of the price of every litre of gas goes to federal or provincial governments in taxes. Out of the 66.7 cents a litre Calgarians forked out on average for gasoline last week, nine cents went to the Alberta government and 14.4 cents went to the federal government for federal excise and GST taxes. Refining, marketing and distribution costs accounted for 13.7 cents. Add in the cost of crude, 29.6 cents, and it becomes apparent where the money we pay for gasoline at the pump goes. That consumers don't seem to "get it." has been a source of frustration for oil industry members, who are tired of being portrayed as villains every time oil prices spike, while governments get off scot free. Almost as aggravating, is the curious spectre of Albertans cheering this year's $2 billion provincial government surplus, but booing oil companies for the high pump and international prices that helped create that windfall. This, of course, is hardly new. In the late 1970s, with gasoline prices hitting near record highs, the PCF (then known as the Petroleum Resources Communication Foundation) mounted a nation-wide information campaign to explain the role played by taxes in pump prices. The centerpiece of that campaign was gas pump stickers which explained who gets what out each litre of gas. "People are always talking about that campaign," says Judy Wish-Hamilton, director of public and government affairs for the Canadian Petroleum Production Institute and a former PCF president. Not surprisingly, Petro-Canada, one of the country's largest gasoline retailers, is about to revisit the pump stickers idea, in an effort to re-direct angry public sentiment about pump prices. Whether the Petro Canada initiative will be as successful as the PCF-led effort of the 1970s, will be interesting to see. Gray points out that while a crisis can be a good time to galvanize public opinion, the best time to educate people is before a calamity strikes. "When we decided to start the PCF we believed that the best way to get sensible policies was to have an informed electorate -- and you can only do that by building bridges before you need them," says Gray. In many ways the PCF has been able to do that. Its trademark publication, Our Petroleum Challenge, (now in its sixth edition) is a textbook example of how to tell a complex industry story in a credible and understandable way. And its efforts to explain the intricacies of gasoline pricing, have been laudable. But as Gray will suggest to PCF members today, a new century means new challenges. Chief among them, we expect, will be putting an end to the myths about gasoline prices. Charles Frank can be reached at 235-7370