The highest oil prices in seven years will encourage drilling, investment, and employment in Canada’s energy sector, but not as much as in past years, say analysts. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price exceeded US$79.10 per barrel on Oct. 5, and some analysts expect prices to rise higher still. The last time the price was this high was 2014, a year that 11,222 oil and gas wells were drilled in Canada, according to the ARC Energy Institute. Yet ARC expects just 4,247 wells to be drilled this year. Richard Masson, an executive fellow at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, said hesitancy owes to a few factors. “Everybody was scared silly last year when prices really collapsed, and so they’re not anxious to make commitments until they know prices are going to be firm for a while and we can count on them,” Masson said in …
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