The last year or so has not been kind to Canadian oil producers. Output has been rising as international prices stabilized at higher levels, but pipeline capacity has not changed, which last year pushed Canadian heavy crude to huge discounts, hitting producers hard. Now prices are higher but many are still struggling to make ends meet. Outside the oil sands, however, things look differently. Bloomberg’s Robert Tuttle quoted in a recent story Michael Kay, a senior industry analyst from Bloomberg Intelligence, as saying “Anything outside the oil sands, those guys are definitely happy with where prices are versus where they were.” Canada’s non-oil sands producers are certainly in a better position: they produce lighter crude, whose price is currently just about US$4 a barrel below West Texas Intermediate. They sell their output locally and are therefore unconcerned about the pipeline shortage that seems likely to remain in place for […]