We Knew It Was Bad, But Maybe We Didn't Know It Was This Bad -- Canadian Pipelines

Link to Calgary Herald.

Canadian oil selling at a $36 discount. Wow.

Federal and provincial governments are reeling from the impact of the lack of pipelines and new markets for Alberta crude - an alarming dilemma that could cost Canada more than a trillion dollars in lost economic activity.

With no quick fixes in sight, ...

Alberta's oilsands bitumen is selling at a $36-a-barrel discount because of a glut of oil in the United States and a lack of pipelines to get the Canadian product to the eastern and western coasts and down to the Gulf of Mexico.

And more:

Horner said the discount - the differential between the price for benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil and Western Canada Select, which represents a blend of conventional heavy crudes and bitumen - is far more serious than he initially believed when the province released its second-quarter fiscal update in late November.

How bad is the differential?

In recent months, the differential appears to be widening, rather than narrowing, and that spells even bigger trouble for Alberta in the future because provincial production is expected to ramp up to 4.5 million barrels per day- up from 2.2 million - and most of that increase is from the oilsands.
In mid-December, bitumen was selling for $47 a barrel - $40 below the WTI price and nearly $60 below the global Brent price. The differential has hovered around $32 to $36 a barrel in recent days.

Unless I missed it, I didn't see the writer mention "the Keystone" by name, but certainly they were referring to it.

I see a lot more rail in Canada's future. And Enbridge.