Burlington Resources – B.C. Court of Appeal finds that cement provided to a well was part of an oil well service rather than being a sale of property for PST purposes

Burlington Resources was found not to be the purchaser for BC provincial sales tax purposes of cement which was inserted into the well casings of wells drilled for it, on the basis that the cement had become real property by the time title to the materials passed to it. By implication, the supplier (BJ Services) instead was providing a service rather than selling cement, and the PST instead should have been paid on the materials purchases by BJ Services itself.

This case may be relevant to P3 projects, which provide that title to materials vests in the government agency as the work proceeds on the relevant facility.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of British Columbia v. Burlington Resources Canada Ltd., 2015 BCCA 19 under Provincial Sales Tax Act (B.C.), s. 1 – purchaser (h/t Robert G. Kreklewetz and Bryan Horrigan, "British Columbia Provincial Sales Tax and Oilfield Services", Sales and Use Tax (Federated Press), Vol. XIII, No. 1, 2015, p. 662).