Oil discounts grow as CEOs complain of Canada’s competitiveness gap
CALGARY — Discounts on Canadian crude oil widened to multi-year highs on Wednesday as oil and gas executives took turns at a conference pointing out Canada’s competitiveness gap in attracting energy investors.
Prices for both Western Canada Select, an oilsands bitumen blend, and Edmonton Sweet crude oil fell relative to New York-traded West Texas Intermediate because of a lack of pipeline capacity, growing production from the oilsands and a reduction in demand due to U.S. refinery maintenance shutdowns, said Tim Pickering, founder of price tracker Auspice Capital in Calgary.
“All of those things have culminated into a system that is completely overloaded,” Pickering said.
“Anything people can move out, they’re moving out, but we’ve basically just got the perfect storm.”