Alberta adjusts crude curtailment program
The provincial government has made major changes to timeframes and volumes
Alberta has extended the sunset clause of its crude curtailment program by a year to 31 December 2020 and has doubled the upper threshold for oil producers' exemption to 20,000bl/d. The province is attempting to achieve multiple goals with these changes—keeping western Canadian crude prices at relatively high levels, supporting financially-strapped smaller producers, encouraging currently lacklustre capital spending and increasing the major producers to take over 120,000bl/d of crude-by-rail contracts signed by the previous government. Programme extension "Extending curtailment is far from ideal, but it remains necessary," says Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage. "Thanks to [federal prime
Also in this section
5 March 2026
Gas is a central pillar of Colombia’s energy system, but declining production poses a significant challenge, and LNG will be increasingly needed as a stopgap. A recent major offshore gas discovery offers hope, but policy improvements are also required, Camilo Morales, secretary general of Naturgas, the Colombian gas association, tells Petroleum Economist
4 March 2026
The continent’s inventories were already depleted before conflict erupted in the Middle East, causing prices to spike ahead of the crucial summer refilling season
4 March 2026
The US president has repeatedly promised to lower gasoline prices, but this ambition conflicts with his parallel aim to increase drilling and could be upended by his war against Iran
4 March 2026
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed following US-Israel strikes and Iran’s retaliatory escalation, Fujairah has become the region’s critical pressure release valve—and is now under serious threat
