Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL), one of Canada’s biggest oil and gas producers, will produce less than expected this spring, it said on Thursday, as transport bottlenecks deepen the price discount on Canadian heavy crude. Tight capacity on pipelines and rail lines from the province of Alberta early this year led to the biggest discount in four years on Canadian heavy crude compared to U.S. benchmark light oil. The space crunch has since abated, causing the discount to shrink closer to normal levels. Calgary-based Canadian Natural forecast production in the current second quarter of 1.054 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, missing analysts’ average estimate of 1.134 million, investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co said in a note. Fellow oil sands producers Cenovus Energy Inc has operated at lower capacity this year. Smaller than expected production this quarter is also due to downtime […]