Opportunity Crudes

In Canada, The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has temporarily suspended a number of environmental regulations on oilsands firms operating in the province after these firms said they could not comply with both the regulations and social distancing orders.

In the US, work on TC Energy's Keystone XL pipeline in Montana was halted after a US District Judge ruled on April 15 that a key water permit used for the pipeline, Nationwide Permit 12, should be suspended.

Output from the country, particularly the oilsands in Alberta, continues to decline as producers reduce spending amid the ongoing price rout.

300K b/d of shut-ins are said to already have taken place in the province, leaving some storage space available in the province after fears arose that the ongoing price rout could result in storage space in the province being overrun.

The Canadian government is implementing a number of measures to support its oil industry amid the current price rout to prevent massive layoffs within the industry.

Western Canadian producers that have grappled with pipeline takeaway capacity constraints in the past three years now have sufficient pipeline capacity to meet takeaway needs.

It is going from bad to worse in the Venezuelan energy space as the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and harsher US sanctions are squeezing the sector even more.

Oilsands producers are facing a critical short-term crisis of WCS prices falling but may be able to expect some long-term relief of on-going takeaway problem as the Keystone XL expansion is said to proceed with Alberta's help.

Two Mexican firms have said that they will take 15.0MM bbl of Venezuelan crude as part of an oil-for-food contract.

As the Russian-Saudi price war and demand destruction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to drive down prices globally, North American crude prices are being particularly hard hit.