Alberta seeks to offload crude by rail program by fall

Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said on Thursday the Canadian province hoped to divest the government’s crude by rail program to the private sector by fall, and has hired Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to oversee the move.The provincial government, led by Premier Jason Kenney, was sworn in in April and had said it did not support a plan by the previous government to lease trains to move crude in an effort to ease bottlenecks on pipelines.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba Editing by Chris Reese)