It’s time for another edition of our weekly column from the A-Team. Here is some important news for the week.
In the wake of the province's problems with pipelines, transporting crude by rail has grown considerably this year:
Crude-by-rail exports rise to record level of more than 300,000 barrels per day
The National Energy Board says crude-by-rail exports from Canada rose to a record 327,229 barrels per day in October.
That’s up more than 21 per cent from 269,829 in September and represents the first time exports by rail have exceeded 300,000 barrels per day — in October 2017, only 137,000 bpd left the country in railcars.
Full export pipelines were blamed for a glut of oil in Western Canada that pressed down a the price for a key benchmark oilsands blend. Via fortmcmurraytoday.com
Western Canadian Select crude oil was $50 less per barrel than West Texas Intermediate in October, with the differential decreasing to $15 after provincial government intervention.
Credit: Fort McMurray Today
The issue of pipelines, in general, has become the focal point of the industry, with its most pressing problems this year arising from a lack of them:
Pipelines Defining Oil Sector in 2018
President and CIO of Auspice Capital Tim Pickering tells Mix News pipelines were the biggest problem and they’re also the solution.
“We’ve got an increasing amount of production here in Alberta, that’s not going to stop, the world wants heavy oil from Alberta and we aren’t able to get it to market.”
Overall, there was a lot of optimism for a year that turned out to be rather tough on the market.
“It had all the components and at mid-year, that’s what we felt, but we had a few things happen unexpectedly,” added Pickering.
2019 will provide more insight as to the fates of the Trans Mountain, Keystone XL, and Enbridge projects.
As the holiday season moves on, the Salvation Army's annual Christmas Kettle campaign wrapped, raising $185,000- a lofty achievement, but falling short of the $200,000 goal:
Christmas Kettle campaign raises $185,000
The campaign, which kicked off on Nov. 17, fell just $15,000 short.
Last week the Salvation Army made a final push in hopes to reach their goal.
“The fact that we went from an expected shortfall of $60,000 this time last week to only $15,000 in a matter of days, is absolutely wonderful,” said Major Stephen Hibbs, Corps Officer for The Salvation Army in Fort McMurray. read more at mymcmurray.com
The $185,000 was raised in just 5 weeks, starting in November.
That’s all for this weeks’ roundup. Check back on The A-Team blog for more news and updates on Fort McMurray.