Alberta has further eased its production-curtailment policy by exempting output from new conventional oil wells.
Responding to crude oil prices depressed by transportation bottlenecks, the province has limited output since January, when a 3.56-million-b/d cap represented a cut of 325,000 b/d.
It has slowly raised the cap, apportioned among producers, since then. This month’s limit is 3.8 million b/d.
In September, conventional oil production in Alberta was 480,000 b/d, of which 90,000 b/d was from curtailed operators.
Last month, the government said operators can apply to increase oil production if the additional amount is moved out of the province by new rail capacity (OGJ Online, Oct. 31, 2019).
