Canada’s struggling oil industry is looking to what is known as partial upgrading technology to thin its sludge-like crude and squeeze more of it through congested pipelines. It is the latest effort by the Alberta provincial government to rescue an industry hurt last year by steep discounts for its oil, as production far exceeded pipeline capacity. The government has already forced output cuts, given subsidies to petrochemical plants and said it would invest in trains to move crude. Alberta in January announced a C$440 million loan guarantee for a C$2-billion partial upgrading facility planned by private company Value Creation. The Edmonton-area plant would turn 77,500 barrels per day (bpd) of diluted bitumen into medium crude oil and low-sulfur diesel, […]