Canada’s high-cost oil-sands producers are struggling as oil prices sink to fresh six-year lows, and even the most efficient drillers are losing money on every barrel they produce at current prices, according to a report published Wednesday. Canadian oil-sands production has grown 30% in the past five years but the recent price slump has hit producers’ bottom lines and forced them to suspend development of new projects. Western Canadian heavy crude costs more to extract than other oil sources because it must be separated from deposits of sand. It also trades at a discount to other crudes, in part because of the distance it must be transported from remote boreal forests in Alberta. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil cost less than $41 a barrel in Wednesday trading, which although at multiyear lows was still well above the Western Canadian Select average of around $24 a barrel. More than […]