Oil Spending Surges in U.S. With Canada ‘Dying by Our Own Sword’
- U.S. 2018 oil patch spending growth nearly double Canada’s
- Canadian oil companies are shifting investment to the U.S.
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In a rural patch of prairie along the U.S.-Canadian border, the towns of Portal, North Dakota, and North Portal, Saskatchewan, couldn’t be closer. They share a fire department, and the first eight holes of the local golf course are in Canada, while the ninth and the club house are in the U.S.
But here in the Bakken shale patch, one of North America’s most-prolific oil fields, the U.S.-Canada border represents a drillers’ divide. Spurred by a surge in crude prices, North Dakota’s production is rising more than three times faster than its counterpart in the Bakken region of Saskatchewan. The output difference between the two countries runs deeper than the shared field.