By Amanda Stephenson
CALGARY, March 11 (Reuters) - Canada will look at ways to increase its crude production to help global efforts to stabilize oil prices in the face of the Iran war, Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said on Wednesday.
The Canadian government is talking to the country's oil producers about delaying planned maintenance projects at oil sands facilities in order to temporarily increase output, Hodgson told reporters in Ottawa. It is also asking Canadian refineries that are using
imported oil to use more domestic oil, in order to free up supply in other regions.
The International Energy Agency on Wednesday agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil, the largest such move in its history, to try to rein in crude prices that have soared due to supply shocks from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Canada — the world's fourth largest oil producer — is a member of the IEA, but does not have its own strategic petroleum reserve because it is a net exporter of oil.
That makes it highly unlikely that any short-term efforts from Canada will make a difference to global supply, said Rory Johnston, founder of the Commodity Context newsletter.
"There's nothing Canada can do, let's be real," Johnston said.
Canada's large oil sands production sites cannot turn on a dime and significantly increase output overnight, Johnston said. While some companies may delay planned maintenance this spring to capitalize on higher oil prices, they would do that because of market signals, not government direction, he added.
It is possible that higher demand from Asian customers could result in more Canadian barrels flowing west for export overseas via the Trans Mountain pipeline, as opposed to moving south to U.S. refining destinations, Johnston said.
That would help since the epicenter of the supply loss is in Asia, but if it happened, it would be market-based and not government-ordered, he added.
While Canada can do little in the short-term, the Iran crisis will likely bolster calls within the country for a new crude pipeline to the Pacific coast that would increase Canada's export capacity and give the oil sands industry the ability to plan for long-term production growth.
"There is not much that we can do now, but we can do more to prepare for the next crisis," Johnston said.
Canada produced on average 5.3 million barrels per day of crude oil in 2025, according to the Canada Energy Regulator.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and David Gregorio)
