Financial Post Alberta oil production falls to lowest level since 2023
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Output from Canada's biggest oil-producing province slid 397,000 barrels a day to 3.61 million barrels a day in May, the lowest since May 2023, provincial data released Thursday show. Flows from the oilsands, the world's third-largest reserve of crude, dropped 384,000 barrels a day. Output from oilsands mines slid to the lowest in more than four years.
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Production was hurt by wildfires, including one near Cold Lake that prompted Cenovus Energy Inc., Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and MEG Energy Corp. to curtail about 350,000 barrels a day in late May and early June. Oil sands producers also reduced output for maintenance work, with MEG Energy's production dropping to the lowest in data stretching back to 2019.
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Lower output from Canada, the world's fourth-largest oil supplier and the biggest foreign seller to the U.S., has combined with falling production from Mexico and a ban on Venezuelan flows to strengthen heavy crude oil prices.
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In Alberta, heavy Western Canadian Select's discount to U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate narrowed to less than US$10 a barrel from early April into late June, compared with an average US$15 a barrel in the past five years, according to General Index prices. On the Gulf Coast, Canadian heavy oil's discount to WTI is trading near the smallest since early 2022, according to Link Data prices.
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