Canadian oil industry in dire straits

Production across the country is in freefall, prompting oil-rich province Alberta to plead for financial support

The high-cost Canadian oil industry is being hammered by the dual effects of Covid-19 and the fallout from unconstrained supply. Producers have rapidly slashed capital spending and drilling programmes and braced themselves for survival mode. More recently, with North American storage tanks brimming and regional crude prices falling into single digits or worse, operators are being forced to shut-in substantial amounts of uneconomic oil. In desperation, Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, Canada’s dominant oil-producing province, has been promoting a number of policies to protect the country’s oil industry, including a greater degree of cooperation with Opec+ and an oil tariff and curtailmen