This week we interview Steve Laut the Executive Vice Chairman of Canadian Natural Resources that has risen to be Canada’s largest oil and gas producer aided by recent acquisitions, including purchasing Shell Canada and Devon’s oil sands assets. Steve explains that oil sands are no longer high cost or high carbon and more improvements are coming with CNRL’s aspirational goal to reach net zero emissions on their upstream production.  Steve also raises some concerns about the Enbridge Mainline, a system that constitutes 70% of all oil pipeline capacity exiting Western Canada. One issue is the procedures for allocating space on the pipeline that need to be fixed since they have contributed to lower Western Canadian oil prices, including during final quarter of 2018. Another concern is Enbridge’s plan to change the contracting for the Mainline, moving from 100% of the pipeline being available under an uncommitted service now to 90% of the capacity offered under firm service agreements, leaving only 10% for spot shipments.

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