Even as oil prices remain stubbornly low, Alberta’s crude production is continuing to rise — but that climb may turn to a crawl in the coming years as pipelines fill, analysts say.
Alberta produced 4.2 million barrels per day of oil from January to August this year, up 200,000 from the same period last year — and more than double the production it reached in 2010.
In the next decade and a half, production is unlikely to see a similar spike, due to limited market access and current regulations and policies, according to Jeremy McCrea, an energy analyst at the Bank of Montreal.
“We do have reserves and resources here to, potentially, double production if needed,” McCrea said Tuesday.
Even if there is an appetite in global markets for such a massive expansion — as much as 8.4 million barr