The amount of oil available for export from Canada exceeded its takeaway pipeline capacity by about 310,000 bpd at the end of 2017, forcing steep discounts for Canadian oil. The discount for Western Canada Select (WCS) relative to WTI hit $30 per barrel late last year, after the temporary outage of the Keystone pipeline. While that problem was resolved, the WCS discount has largely been stuck at about the same level through early March. The problem for Canadian oil producers is that some new oil sands projects came online late last year, adding new supply. At the end of last year, Canadian output stood 350,000 bpd higher compared to two years earlier, despite no major pipelines coming online in that timeframe. Now, producers are fighting for space on the nation’s major pipelines, while new projects remain mired in limbo due to a mix of environmental opposition, regulatory hurdles and […]