RPT-In Canada's prairies, crude slump puts first oil patch in reverse

Reuters ^ | Sep 8, 2015 | Nia Williams

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Amid the corn and canola fields of eastern Saskatchewan, oil foreman Dwayne Roy is doing what Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC producers are loath to do: shutting the taps on active wells.

Inside a six-foot-square wooden shed that houses a basic hydraulic pump, the Gear Energy Ltd employee demonstrates how shutting down a conventional heavy oil well in this lesser-known Canadian oil patch is as simple as flipping a switch. His company has already done so hundreds of times this year, making the Lloydminster industry among the first in the world to yield in a global battle for oil market share that has sent crude prices tumbling to six-year lows.

Gear Energy Ltd, has idled up to 500 of its least efficient wells this year, many of them in the past weeks. Some cost of up to C$28 ($21.22) a barrel to operate. It costs another C$7 in royalty and transportation fees to get the crude, among the densest in the world, to regional rail hubs - where it was fetching barely $20 a barrel during last month's lows.

"We ask every day: is this well making money today? Will it make us money going forward?" says Roy.

Such questions have been nagging oil industry veterans since crude prices started sliding last year as a result of a supply glut caused by a battle between exporters' group OPEC and North American shale oil producers.

Energy firms around the world have responded by laying off thousands of workers and slashing spending by billions of dollars. But producers here are the first to do what the global market needs to rebalance: turn off the taps.

All told, at least 8,000 barrels per day (bpd) of local heavy conventional oil production has been idled by firms such as Gear, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd...

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excerpt for Reuters

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I’m surprised none of this has been reflected in the US unemployment numbers yet regarding US firms.

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This article was talking specific about the Canadian conventional heavy oil wells.

Canada has a greater price disadvantage give the cost and distance to move heavy oil, versus our light sweet closer to market demand.

We still have losses in the US oil job market, but we don’t have all the problems discussed in this article.

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Thanks