'Premier Smith and Prime Minister Carney have their work cut out for themselves, because they will not get any oil price uplift here,' said Al Salazar, vice-president of intelligence at energy analytics firm Enverus

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Two significant events reverberated through the Canadian oilpatch on Monday, with Parkland Corp. accepting a $12.6-billion takeover offer from U.S.-based Sunoco LP, and OPEC agreeing to boost output — prompting oil prices to slide.

Over the weekend, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners said they would restart about 410,000 barrels per day (bpd) of idled production in June, following a similar-sized hike in May.

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More oil supplies flowing into markets comes at a time when global demand is expected to weaken. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices slid by $1.16 on Monday, closing at US$57.13 a barrel.

It’s now almost $11-a-barrel below the oil price forecast by the Alberta government in its new budget.

“It comes at an absolutely critical time here. We just had the election and there’s this big push to get pipelines built,” said Al Salazar, vice-president of intelligence at energy analytics firm Enverus.

“Royalty revenue is going to take a hit . . . Premier (Danielle) Smith and Prime Minister (Mark) Carney have their work cut out for themselves, because they will not get any oil price uplift here.”

The weekend decision by OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, is an attempt to put pressure on countries in the group, such as Kazakhstan, that have exceeded their production targets, although other factors are also at play, he said.

“They don’t care about pushing prices lower, they are trying to punish the cheaters, and maybe it’s a bit of an overture to President Trump and his request for low oil prices,” added Salazar.

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