Canadian oilsands operation Syncrude has reduced its December crude oil production by 1.6 million barrels according to Reuters, citing three market sources. The production cutback was due to a operational problem, the sources said, who did not elaborate on what those operational problems were. Syncrude is one of the largest producers of crude from Albertas oilsands, a joint venture between Exxon’s Imperial Oil Resources, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Sinopec, and Suncor. Syncrude also scaled back its oil sales in October by 1.4 million barrels after planned maintenance took longer than expected, according to Reuters. The 360,000 bpd facility has a history of problems, operating at just partial capacity for most of this summer. While Suncor said yesterday it has plans to raise oil production by 5% in 2020 , it said its Syncrude operations would remain adversely impacted due to the continued and disproportionate effect of the […]