Cautious optimism in the energy sector following drilling forecast.
It’s an oil and gas forecast that has long been seen as an economic barometer for Calgary, Alberta and to a larger extent Canada.
Late Tuesday, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) revealed they expect 7,000 wells to be drilled in the coming year, almost 4,000 of them will be in Alberta.
President and CEO Mark Salkeld says investors are concerned, more needs to done to reassure them about the energy sector.
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Until we can get our oil to tide water, Salkeld says we’ll see more crude being shipped by rail.
“We’ll definitely see an increase in movement of oil by rail, we’ll do everything it takes to get our oil offshore to other markets, I mean we’re missing on the world price because we only have one customer,” he said.
Despite its woes, Ben Brunnen with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says the sector is doing its fair share to help the Canadian economy.
“It (forecast) is a good thing in the sense that we see some stability, some predictability and it’s an indication that going forward from an economic perspective, we’ll continue on the same trajectory,” said Brunnen.
Although those figures are slightly higher than last year, 7,900 wells is still 30 per cent below figures we saw in 2014.
