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Canadian Heavy Crude Slumps To Lowest In At Least A Decade

CALGARY, Alberta, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Heavy Canadian crude slumped to its lowest level in at least a decade on Wednesday after Enbridge Inc closed two of its main pipelines in the United States because of a leak, piling fresh misery on Canadian oil companies that are close to producing at a loss. Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for September delivery last traded at $20.75 per barrel below the West Texas Intermediate benchmark, according to Shorcan Energy brokers, having settled at $19.80 per barrel below on Tuesday. Earlier in the session it hit $21.75 per barrel below WTI, the widest differential since August last year. That pushed the outright price of Canadian heavy crude to around $22.50 a barrel, a level at which some companies will struggle to cover the cost of production, blending and transportation. It was lower than the 2008 trough of $24.62, according to one […]

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Canadian oil sands crude halves in price

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Oil-Sands Syncrude Drop Reveals Downturn Tactic as Outages Surge

Canadian synthetic crude production fell 15% from previous year Producers of light synthetic crude from Canada’s oil sands found a way to manage this year’s price slump by churning out less and getting more maintenance work done. The strategy is highlighted by a 15 percent decline in the production of the Syncrude benchmark in May from a year earlier, according to data reported by Statistics Canada on Monday. Oil-sands operators including Royal Dutch Shell Plc cut output while collectively undertaking the biggest set of repairs this spring in five years at their upgraders, plants that turn bitumen into light oil, according to Genscape Inc., an energy data company. The work followed the lowest average quarterly price for benchmark U.S. crude since 2009. “From a strategic point of view, I’m sure these major companies are betting that the peak of oversupply is this year, now,” said Carl Evans, a Genscape […]

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Canadian Stocks Plunge as Commodities Slump on Yuan Devaluation

Canadian stocks fell, a session after raw-materials producers had their strongest gains this year, as China’s currency devaluation prompted a selloff in commodities. Equities reversed most of Monday’s gains and declined for the third time in four days as energy and raw-materials companies lost more than 2 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and TransCanada Corp. fell at least 1.6 percent. Crude oil retreated 3.8 percent after its biggest rally in a month in New York. Commodities declined amid speculation yuan weakness will erode the buying power of Chinese consumers. The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index fell 151.15 points, or 1 percent, to 14,315.24 at 10:39 a.m. in Toronto, after a 1.1 percent advance Monday that was the biggest in more than a week. The gauge has fallen 2.2 percent in 2015, one of only three developed markets in negative territory for the year among the 24 tracked by Bloomberg. […]

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Canadian oil exports hit low mark for year

Canadian energy regulator reports total crude oil exports for May were at their lowest point for the year. Photo by Heather Snow/Shutterstock CALGARY, Alberta, Aug. 7 (UPI) — Canada reported total oil exports for May were at their lowest level for 2015, though slight increases have emerged while the country moves into recession. The National Energy Board in Canada reported total exports through May, the last full month for which it has data. Government data show total crude oil exports for May at 2.8 million barrels per day, about 10 percent less than April and the lowest monthly total for the year. The wildfire threat is high in the Pacific Northwest, with provincial response teams in British Columbia and Saskatchewan battling the blazes. In May, producers Canadian Natural Resources and Cenovus Energy curbed production, closed facilities and evacuated staff from Alberta operations during wildfire outbreaks. Fires were as close […]

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Economy Takes Center Stage as Harper Kicks Off Canada Election

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Photographer: Patrick Doyle/Bloomberg Prime Minister Stephen Harper began Canada’s longest election campaign in more than a century by touting his economic stewardship as his main rivals jockeyed to be seen as the best agent of change. The incumbent Conservative leader fired the starting gun early on Canada’s 42nd election campaign Sunday morning, meeting Governor General David Johnston, Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in Canada, to request parliament be dissolved. The visit marked the formal start of campaigning for an Oct. 19 vote, with polls showing Harper’s nine-year reign being threatened by a leftist party that’s never governed the country. “A national election is not a popularity contest,” Harper, 56, said outside Ottawa’s Rideau Hall. “Canadians will make a serious choice between proven, real-world experience and a dangerous approach that has failed before and is failing in other countries.” The Conservatives are locked in a three-way […]

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Imperial Oil Profit Drops 90% on Tax Charge, Low Crude Prices

Imperial Oil Ltd. IMO -0.56 % on Friday posted a 90% drop in its second-quarter profit, hurt by a large charge for a tax-rate increase in Alberta, slumping global oil prices and in the absence of a year-earlier gain on the sale of an asset. The Calgary, Alberta, integrated energy company, the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM -4.58 % , did get a boost from stronger production levels in the quarter, helped in part by the early startup of an oil-sands expansion project in northern Alberta. Overall production rose nearly 20% to 344,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, which the company said was its highest quarterly production level in nearly eight years. In June, Imperial Oil announced that production from the Kearl oil-sands expansion project had started earlier than scheduled. The 9 billion Canadian dollar ($6.9 billion) project is expected to add 110,000 barrels a day […]

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TransCanada Alberta Pipelines Set Back by Oil Rout, Keystone Lag

TransCanada Corp. is slowing work on two pipelines in Alberta because of reduced demand tied to lower crude prices and setbacks to its major oil export projects. TransCanada is indefinitely bumping back construction that was planned for earlier this year on its Heartland line from Edmonton to Hardisty since the Keystone XL and Energy East systems it would supply are delayed, executives said Friday on a conference call. Full expansion of the company’s Grand Rapids line from Fort McMurray to Edmonton, now under construction with startup planned for 2016, is being slowed as production rises more slowly in the oil sands. “A lot of the commercial underpinning for Heartland is tied to Energy East and Keystone XL,” said Paul Miller, president of liquids pipelines at TransCanada. “We do anticipate a slowing growth of throughput and build-out of the Grand Rapids system to align with the slowing pace of oil […]

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Canadian Oil Sands Posts Loss on Lower Crude Prices

CALGARY, Alberta— Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. COSWF 0.90 % on Thursday reported a net loss in the second quarter, citing lower prices for its crude and the effect of a two percentage point corporate tax hike in the Western Canadian province where it operates. The largest owner of the Syncrude oil sands project in northern Alberta lost 128 million Canadian dollars ($98.4 million), or 26 Canadian cents a share, in the three months to June 30, compared with a net profit of C$176 million, or 36 Canadian cents a share, in the year-earlier period. It said the loss mainly came from a C$120 million deferred tax expense reflecting an increase in Alberta’s corporate tax rate to 12% from 10% previously. The company also suffered from a global crude oil price drop, which has affected many so-called unconventional producers of oil-sands crude and shale oil. Citing expenses in excess of […]

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Suncor Deepens Spending Cuts for 2015 as Oil Price Languishes

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil producer, cut its spending plan for 2015 for a second time and eliminated some non-essential projects as part of cost-reduction efforts. The company now plans to spend between C$5.8 billion ($4.5 billion) and C$6.4 billion from an earlier range of C$6.2 billion and C$6.8 billion, Calgary-based Suncor said Wednesday Canadian time in a statement on Marketwired. Suncor has already cut about 1,000 jobs and previously lowered its 2015 capital budget by C$1 billion while delaying projects to weather collapsing prices. Still, it’s pressing ahead with the C$13 billion Fort Hills oil-sands mine. The move to cut spending comes after the price of West Texas Intermediate moved back into a bear market, dropping below $50 a barrel earlier this month for the first time in about a quarter. The U.S. benchmark, averaged about $58 in the second quarter compared with about $103 in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple