Soaring oil prices could benefit Canadian industry

Updated Wed. Sep. 12 2007 8:00 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Drivers may scowl （皱眉） at news that oil futures climbed to a record US$80 a barrel Wednesday, but the high price will likely benefit the Canadian energy sector.
星期三石油价格攀升到80美金一桶。人们在看到这个新闻时会皱眉头，但是高油价可能对加拿大能源业有利。

Demand for oil in countries like China and India is pushing the price higher, despite OPEC's decision to raise daily production by 500,000 barrels per day this fall, according to the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.
尽管OPEC决定日产量50万桶，但象中国和印度等石油需求量很大的国家使得石油价格持续上涨。

"It's a bit of a plus for Canada. But if you drive, it's not a plus," Avery Shenfeld, a senior economist with CIBC World Markets, told CTV Newsnet.
加拿大帝国商业银行世界市场的高级紧急学家Avery shenfeld告诉CTV Newnet记者：这对加拿大是个好事，但如果你开车，就不是好事了。

"Canada is a major exporter. We have oil that's pretty expensive to get out of the ground in places like the oil sands, and these high prices are just what we need to make that operation profitable. The energy boom, at least on the oil side, looks likely to continue for some time to come."
加拿大是一个主要能源出口国。我们有开发成本价高的石油，如油砂等。高油价正是我们所需要的。

Meanwhile, oil reserves in the U.S. are lower than expected for this time of year, as more drivers take their cars on the road.

"The Americans are getting into their cars so much that the stockpiles（原油储备） of crude in the U.S. have fallen well beyond what we thought -- 2.5 million fewer barrels were expected, but instead it was 7.1 million," said BNN's Michael Hainsworth.
美国人去哪里都开车，美国原油储备比我们估计的还少250万桶，只有710万通。

Shenfeld said the situation is compounded by concerns tropical hurricanes could still damage the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas infrastructure, and increasing demand in China and India.
出现这种情况的原因主要是墨西哥湾的风暴对石油天然气基础上的破坏以及中国和印度需求的增长。

"At some point in the not-so-distant future, the developing world will pass the developed OPEC (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, in terms of overall consumption," said Shenfeld.

"And even some of the oil-producing countries like Russia and Mexico are using up some of their own oil, because they're seeing more drivers on their routes."

Despite the jump in price, oil still costs less than the inflation-adjusted highs of early 1980. According to a calculation by The Associated Press, a US$38 barrel of oil in 1980 would be worth between US$96 and US$101 today, or even more.

Light crude oil ended the day at US79.91 on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday, from an earlier high of $80.18.

Natural gas futures rose 60.4 cent U.S. to end at US$6.438 per 1,000 cubic feet, and Nymex heating oil futures closed at US2.2191 a gallon.

October Brent crude oil jumped US$1.30 to finish at $77.68 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

In other developments:

    * In its weekly report, the EIA said U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 700,000 barrels, rather than the expected 500,000 decline.
    * U.S. refineries are operating at 90.6 per cent capacity, falling 1.6 percentage points.
    * Last week, U.S. crude imports dropped 674,000 barrels a day on average to 9.56 million barrels, and gasoline imports decreased an average of 298,000 barrels a day to 1.02 million barrels a day.
    * Demand for gasoline averaged about 9.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks.

With files from The Associated Press