Roach said a number of factors are helping to keep the lid on capital spending, not least of which are ongoing concerns about the trajectory of the pandemic and its impact on oil prices. 'But we're not even back to where we were during the recession of 2015-16.' 'We're not expecting it to go back to 2014 levels, when it broke all records,'' said Rob Roach, deputy chief economist for ATB Financial.

That year, capital investment in the Canadian oilpatch hit an all-time record high of CDN$81 billion. The industry also spent less than a third of what it did during the same period of 2014. It was a reminder of just how much uncertainty there still is in the Canadian oilpatch, and why companies are being cautious in spite of impressive recent profits as oil prices this fall spiked to levels not seen in seven years.Īccording to Statistics Canada, Alberta oil production in October was 119 million barrels, an all-time monthly record.Īt the same time, however, Statistics Canada says oil and gas capital spending over the first three quarters of 2021 was CDN$8.5 billion, still 32 per cent below the same period during 2019 pre-pandemic. Last Friday, as news of Omicron began to spread around the globe, fears that the variant would affect economic recovery from the pandemic prompted a broad-based sell-off on the markets, with energy stocks taking the brunt of the beating.

Canadian oil and gas companies have been hesitant to loosen the purse strings in spite of this fall's commodity price boom, and the arrival of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant may help to explain why.īenchmark West Texas Intermediate crude closed at US$65.67 on Wednesday, more than 20 per cent lower than in early November prior to the arrival of the new strain of the virus.

Boom beach updates 2016