growing chorus of industry executives<\/a> this earnings season who are calling on Ottawa to ease regulatory hurdles \u2014 including planned increases to the industrial carbon tax \u2014 in order to attract more capital to the sector.<\/p>\nThe debate comes at a sensitive moment in negotiations between Ottawa and the Alberta government over a broad deal to boost energy production, including potential federal support for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast. One stumbling block is how quickly industrial carbon pricing should rise to a minimum effective credit price of $130 per tonne \u2014 a policy Ottawa views as central to meeting Canada\u2019s emissions-reductions targets.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, industry is pressing Ottawa to focus on a different target: the Carney government\u2019s pledge to make Canada an \u201cenergy superpower\u201d and double non-U.S. exports over the next decade \u2014 an ambition some economists and industry advocates say will require significantly more pipeline capacity.<\/p>\n
Stauth said Thursday that expansions to Enbridge\u2019s Mainline system and the Trans Mountain pipeline, as well as a possible revival of Keystone XL, are helpful. But he said a new one-million-barrel-a-day pipeline to the West Coast would be \u201cvery important\u201d for long-term growth.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\")
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. president Scott Stauth. <\/p>\n
CNRL has said previously it is holding off on a major $8.25-billion expansion of its Jackpine oilsands mine while it awaits more clarity on federal regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need that pipeline to be able to grow oilsands in a significant way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The push from the oilpatch comes as producers have seen their first-quarter earnings boosted by higher energy prices triggered by war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
CNRL reported an adjusted profit of $2.4 billion in the first three months of the year, roughly flat compared to the same period a year earlier.<\/p>\n
But the oilsands giant pointed out Thursday that its upgraded bitumen \u2014 known as synthetic crude oil (SCO) \u2014 is currently selling for US$5.70 more per barrel than U.S. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate.<\/p>\n
Synthetic crude \u2014 which usually trades at a discount to WTI \u2014 is being snapped up by refiners who consider it an ideal feedstock for jet fuel and diesel.<\/p>\n
Based on current forward pricing, SCO could continue to trade above WTI for the remainder of 2026, CRNL said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith everything that\u2019s going on worldwide, there\u2019s simply just a greater demand out there for that light crude to create that diesel production,\u201d Stauth said.<\/p>\n
CNRL said its production averaged 1,643,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first quarter, a four per cent increase from a year earlier.<\/p>\n
mpotkins@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe need that pipeline to be able to grow oilsands in a significant way,\u201d says CRNL’s Scott Stauth.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,242787,242785,242786,295,92848,178595,20739,242788,66,242784],"class_list":["post-655100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-natural-resources-ltd","tag-cnrl","tag-crnl","tag-environment","tag-oil-pipeline","tag-oilsands","tag-ottawa","tag-pipeline-capacity","tag-science","tag-scott-stauth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Pipeline](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/25f3efaa6c5af325045ca9a3add1d71d.jpeg\")
\u201cWe need that pipeline to be able to grow oilsands in a significant way,\u201d says CRNL’s Scott Stauth. (Credit: Marc Bruxelle\/Getty Images\/Postmedia files) <\/p>\n