CRA states that a Canadian resource royalty interest requires a right to “take production”

Para. (d) of the definition of a Canadian resource property (CRP) includes:

any right to a rental or royalty computed by reference to the amount or value of production from an oil or a gas well in Canada, or from a natural accumulation of petroleum, natural gas or a related hydrocarbon in Canada, if the payer of the rental or royalty has an interest in … the well or accumulation …. and 90% or more of the rental or royalty is payable out of, or from the proceeds of, the production from the well or accumulation.

When asked whether the above reference to the royalty payer thereof having an "interest in" the well or accumulation requires a real property interest rather than a mere contractual interest, or is a contractual interest sufficient? CRA responded that “an ‘interest’ in the well or accumulation … requires that the payer must have a right to take production from the well or accumulation” – which sounds like a real property interest, although CRA evidently considered it to be otiose to comment directly on this point.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of 7 June 2017 Canadian Petroleum Tax Society Roundtable, Q.2 under s. 66(15) – para. (d).