Canadian Crude Hits Record Low as Pipeline Space Runs Out
- U.S. refinery maintenance work may add to glut, Deloitte says
- Production has surged from new and older oil-sands projects
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Canadian crude plunged to a record low relative to U.S. crude, hurt by reduced capacity at American refineries and a jump in production from new oil-sands megaprojects that has overwhelmed the nation’s pipeline system.
Maintenance work at U.S. refineries over the next six months will lead to stretches when those facilities are offline, giving portions of Canadian heavy crude nowhere to go, Andrew Botterill, a partner at Deloitte in Calgary, said in a report Thursday. That dynamic, along with increased output from newly finished projects like Suncor Energy Inc.’s Fort Hills mine and improved efficiency at existing operations, is already at play, he said.