Wow, Wow, Wow! The Canary in the Coal Mine....

The other day I posted the likely effects of dropping oil prices on the oil patch. I said that the Canadian oil sands will be affected well before the Bakken. I made that point clearly on at least two occasions. I'm not going to spend time looking for the links; if I run across them I will update the site.

Now, this link to RigZone! Yes!

Growing U.S. tight oil production, particularly from the Bakken oil play, threatens to squeeze the margins of Canadian oil sands projects, and could result in unsanctioned oil sands projects being delayed or cancelled due to the potential for wide and volatile price differentials, according to a May 2012 report by Wood Mackenzie.

The massive growth of North American tight oil production, particularly North Dakota's Bakken play, is placing pressure, and competing directly with Canadian barrels moving south, according to the report. This problem will only get worse as Wood Mackenzie forecasts that North Dakota's Bakken production will double to 1.2 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) by 2015.

The "price points" in the article confirm what I've been posting.

So many, many story angles, but that will have to wait.

However, more fuel for the fire: economic indicators are bad news for the energy sector - Rigzone.