Suncor hopeful on deal with Alberta 'in the next month or so' to boost oil production
Extra output will have to be shipped by rail
The Suncor Energy Inc. upgrader plant at the Athabasca oil sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta.Ben Nelms/Bloomberg
Nia Williams
CALGARY — Canada's Suncor Energy is hopeful the Alberta government will decide "in the next month or so" to strike a deal that would allow oil producers to boost their output despite ongoing curtailments, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.
Alberta is Canada's energy heartland but crude production has been limited since the start of 2019 when the provincial government imposed curtailments to ease congestion on export pipelines that had pushed the discount on Canadian crude to record lows.
Earlier this month, some of Canada's biggest producers including Suncor said they were in talks with the government about being allowed to produce more than their current quotas as long as that incremental production was shipped to market by rail.