Capacity crunch

Canada’s oil sands need new pipelines to new markets

A build-up of oil-sands production without sufficient pipeline capacity to take all the new oil to consumers threatens the long-term viability of the developments, believes Alberta’s government. The province’s premier, Alison Redford, summed up the problem in a catch-phrase called the “bitumen bubble”, which has caught on in a general public concerned for the future viability of oil-sands exports. Her theory, shared by some analysts, is that rising output from the oil sands will by 2016 eclipse the pipeline capacity that links the projects with refiners. This would drive down the price of Canada’s oil, which would be heavily discounted against higher quality or more accessible oil closer to