A pumpjack works at a well head on an oil and gas installation near Cremona, Alta., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016. Imagine producing a bumper crop of a product in high demand around the globe, only to learn you must settle for a discounted price because there’s no easy way to get your product to market. Canadian grain farmers experienced that situation in 2013 and again last winter when their harvest outstripped the transport capacity of Canada’s rail companies. Western Canada’s oil companies are now in the same boat thanks to production gains that have not been matched by export pipeline capacity gains. Like those farmers, oil producers have filled storage to bursting while they wait for a solution to appear. The price discounts or “differentials” that had mainly affected heavy oil have spread to light oil and upgraded synthetic oilsands crude as pipeline space tightens. READ MORE: Imperial reviews Alberta oilsands project approvals as heavy oil price discounts persist Watch below: Some recent videos from Global News’ coverage of the Alberta oil industry. Estimates on the cost to the economy vary wildly, but the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers officially estimates the impact as at least C$13 billion in […]
