Alberta eyes help for energy industry in Canadian crude rout

CALGARY (Bloomberg) -- Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the province may soon announce more plans to help the local energy industry reap more value from its resources amid a slump in Canadian crude prices.

“We will have more to say in the weeks to come around other things that we can do to provide more value-added opportunities here in Alberta” to help ease the province’s bottlenecks in crude pipelines and rail shipping, Notley said in response to questions at a press conference in Edmonton.

Alberta’s government previously pledged C$1 billion ($772 million) to support construction of partial upgraders that lighten oil-sands bitumen and help it flow through pipelines. The province also is providing C$500 million in royalty credits to spur construction of more plants to turn crude into plastics, fabrics and fertilizers.

Notley has supported the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, the controversial project purchased by the Canadian government for C$4.5 billion to send more crude to British Columbia for possible export.

Western Canada Select’s discount to West Texas Intermediate crude widened to $47/bbl on Tuesday, the widest on record in Bloomberg data stretching back to 2008. The price of WCS slid 5.2% to $28.23/bbl, the lowest since November 2016.