- The 350K bbl/day Syncrude oil sands project in Alberta, which halted production and brought forward planned maintenance after a fire last month, is expected to restart operations in the first week of May, Reuters reports.
- The plant likely would run at partial rates in May, with production expected at ~5M barrels, which is nearly 50% of capacity, according to the report.
- The unexpected outage has pushed synthetic crude prices in Edmonton to the highest in nearly four years Wednesday, while Canadian heavy oil was the highest since 2015; U.S. prices also surged, with Bakken oil from North Dakota hitting a four-year high and Light Louisiana Sweet the most expensive since May.
- The disruption also has cut output from ConocoPhillips' (NYSE:COP) Surmont site in Alberta, which mixes light oil produced at Syncrude with bitumen to make it flow through pipelines.
- Syncrude is a joint venture that includes Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU), Imperial Oil (NYSEMKT:IMO), Sinopec (NYSE:SNP) and Cnooc's (NYSE:CEO) Nexen.
- ETFs: USO, OIL, UCO, SCO, BNO, DBO, DTO, USL, DNO, OLO, SZO, OLEM
Original article