The Next Challenge for Canada's Oil Patch Comes From the Sea
- IMO 2020 shipping fuel rule reduce demand for oil sands crude
- Regulation seen offsetting new pipeline and rail transportaion
A train pulls oil tankers past a refinery in British Columbia, Canada.
Photographer: Darryl Dyck/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A new threat looms for Canada’s largest oil producing province, even as it imposes mandatory output cuts to ease a glut that has driven down crude prices.
A rule taking effect in 2020 aimed at reducing pollution by cutting the sulfur content of maritime fuel will make sulfur-heavy oil sands crude less desirable. The change may dampen the long-term impact of a mandatory production curtailment in Alberta Sunday, and lessen the benefit of plans to ease the region’s transport bottleneck.