Canada‘s oil sands are inching toward record production, as the country’s biggest producers squeeze more barrels out of existing assets, but they are holding back on big spending despite some of the highest oil prices in seven years.
The oil sands, which make up the bulk of Canada‘s production, are on track to reach 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by year-end, surpassing January’s record of 3.25 million bpd, said Matt Murphy, analyst at investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt.
Oil demand is rebounding as expanding COVID-19 vaccination rates spur greater economic activity, and as the OPEC+ group of major producers ignores U.S. calls to raise supply faster. Those factors have driven global prices to more than $80 per barrel.
Canada‘s majors all signaled recently, however, that they have no plans to take on big new projects or significant expansions to existing facilities.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL), Suncor Energy Inc and Cenovus Energy Inc elected instead to increase dividends to take advantage of stronger revenues.
Those producers are scheduled to unveil 2022 capital budgets in coming weeks, but will prioritize small expansions and efficiencies to their sites to raise output.
Total Canadian production, including conventional crude oil and condensate, hit a record of 4.96 million bpd in December 2019, according to the Canada Energy Regulator. Canada produced 4.67 million bpd in August 2021, the most recent data available.
Cenovus plans to raise production through small expansions and reducing bottlenecks to assets it acquired this year, rather than big projects, Chief Executive Alex Pourbaix said.
“These projects have way lower capital, they have very high returns and we can bring them into service in very short order,” Pourbaix said in an interview. “They’re actually much more compelling economically than looking at the large-scale, phased expansions that cost several billion dollars and take five to six years to construct.”
Imperial Oil Ltd, majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corp, has a number of projects planned for its Kearl oil sands plant that will increase production to 280,000 bpd by 2025 from 265,000 bpd this year, CEO Brad Corson said.
CNRL President Tim McKay said the company is focusing on efforts like introducing solvents to boost production at thermal oil sands operations and reduce emissions from natural gas.
“Given what we have been through with all the volatility with oil and gas prices, it’s very difficult to go out and sanction major expenditure,” McKay said.
(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Peter Cooney)
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
