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A flare stack lights the sky along refinery row in Edmonton Alta, on Friday December 28, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson CALGARY — Crude oil prices in Western Canada remained elevated on Wednesday, the day after provincially mandated oil production curtailments came into force, but a government spokesman says it’s too early to say how long the program will remain in place. The difference between Western Canadian Select bitumen-blend heavy oil and New York-traded West Texas Intermediate oil prices was about US$12.50 per barrel on Wednesday afternoon, according to Calgary oil brokerage Net Energy, an improvement over the US$17.52 per barrel average for spot contracts for January delivery signed last month. The WCS-WTI discount peaked at more than US$52 a barrel in October, a level at which the province estimated it was costing the Canadian economy more than $80 million per day. Watch: What’s behind Canadian oil prices? Story continues below. Unable to play video. HTML5 is not supported! But it recovered to traditional norms in the mid-teens or better after Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced Dec. 2 that the province would impose curtailments of 325,000 barrels per day as of Jan. 1 to relieve a glut of oil […]
