Headlines

The discount on Western Canada Select crude oil to North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures widened on Tuesday. WCS for December delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $31.60 a barrel below the US benchmark WTI, compared with $31.10 on Monday, according to brokerage CalRock. The discount is now more than double what it was in September and is at its widest since 2018. * Steep discounts on Canadian heavy crude have historically been a result of a lack of pipeline capacity [Read more]

MONTREAL - Hydro-Québec has released a report suggesting it may need to import electricity from neighbouring provinces or the United States within the next three years. The state-owned utility's new supply plan for 2027—2041 projects a high increase in the demand for energy in the coming years. The utility expects this demand could cause it to face energy deficits as early as 2029. Hydro-Québec estimates that the demand for Quebec’s electricity will increase by over 30 per cent by [Read more]

US President Donald Trump’s administration has made the AI boom a signature economic bet. A strike on Iran after the US midterm elections could potentially blow that up. The White House has doubled down on its support for the artificial intelligence revolution, claiming that the country that wins the AI arms race will win the future. Yet, at the same time, the US government has indicated that it may attack Iran again after Tuesday's midterms if no new ceasefire deal is reached. The White [Read more]

The Iran conflict is causing the oil services industry to increase its cost assessment for projects due to rising shipment, fuel and security costs, which are affecting its Middle Eastern contract performance, executives said at a conference in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The Iran war, now in its ninth month, has damaged infrastructure and forced staff to evacuate in several countries. Threats to shipping via the Strait of Hormuz have made equipment deliveries difficult, increasing the cost of both [Read more]

Hacking supermarket refrigerators may sound trivial. It's not. It's a warning of the economic disruption AI could wreak in an increasingly vulnerable world. In the past few days alone, unknown criminal groups or state actors have been responsible for the biggest cyber theft in history, the hacking of Ukraine's air defense alert systems and the overnight shutdown of supermarket freezers across Europe. Attempted breaches of encrypted financial accounts along with economic and military [Read more]

Saudi state oil giant Aramco is exploring the expansion of a crude pipeline that circumvents the Strait of Hormuz as the world continues to experience the biggest energy supply shock in history, CEO Amin Nasser said on Tuesday. The effective blockade of the chokepoint, previously a conduit for 20% of global oil supplies, has redrawn global energy flows and infrastructure investment priorities in the Gulf. The impact extends far beyond the energy market, Nasser said in a statement to [Read more]