REFILE-Alberta tweaks royalties to encourage deep drilling

(Refiles to fix spelling of 'encourage' in headline)

CALGARY, Alberta, April 10 (Reuters) - Alberta has tweaked its new royalty system in efforts to convince the energy industry to drill C$500 million ($490 million) worth of deep gas and oil wells it would have otherwise walked away from, the province's energy minister said on Thursday.

To fix what the government has termed "unintended consequences" of its new royalty framework, which raised the energy sector's ire last last year, Alberta devised breaks in economic rent for oil wells deeper than 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) and gas wells deeper than 2,500 metres (8,200 feet).

The programs are expected to cost C$237 million a year for five years, but generate more than C$2 billion in royalty revenues over the next decade, Energy Minister Mel Knight said.

($1=$1.02 Canadian) (Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Rob Wilson)