Canada’s oil producers can’t catch a break. Even as local production cuts help alleviate pipeline bottlenecks, heavy crude plunged below $18 a barrel for the first time since 2016 — dragged down by global oil prices. “The differentials are holding to modestly improving but the global prices are sliding,” Kevin Birn, a director on the North American crude oil markets team at IHS Markit, said in a phone interview. “We called it a double whammy.” Oil sands producers including Canadian Natural Resource Ltd., Devon Energy Corp., Cenovus Energy Inc. and Athabasca Oil Corp. have announced curtailments that may total 140,000 barrels a day or more, after a localized glut sent heavy Western Canadian Select crude plunging to a $50 discount to West Texas Intermediate futures, the widest in Bloomberg data going back a decade. Since then, WCS’s discount has narrowed […]