Oil sands’ return keeps Canadian pipelines empty

Bloomberg

Canada’s oil-sands producers are taking their time at restoring production, leaving the country’s normally congested pipelines with room to spare.
Enbridge Inc said that nominations to ship heavy oil on its Mainline, the country’s biggest oil-export network, exceeded capacity by 7% in August versus 3% in July. For the sixth straight month, no rationing was imposed for light oil shipments. The situation is a far cry from before the pandemic, when apportionment levels consistently exceeded 40% or higher even with provincially imposed production limits.
Canadian oil sands companies have been gradually ramping up output as refinery demand recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, which prompted mass closures of businesses earlier in the year. But the recovery has been slower than in
the US.
With West Texas Intermediate trading around $40 a barrel, margins aren’t that appealing, Mark Oberstoetter, lead analyst for upstream research at Wood Mackenzie Ltd in Calgary, said by phone.
“At this price, their plans to bring back production are economically viable, but it’s not like they are going to rush,” he said.