Canada’s IEA Oil Promise Adds Little New Crude to Tight Market

The Canadian government’s pledge to supply 23.6 million extra barrels of oil in the coming months reflects natural growth in production, according to BMO Capital Markets, rather than a specific effort to produce more crude.

The promise made by Energy Minister Tim Hodgson last month was Canada’s contribution to the 400 million barrels being released by 32 countries in the International Energy Agency. But unlike IEA members such as the US and Japan, Canada holds no strategic petroleum reserves. It is the world’s fourth-biggest oil supplier and second-largest within the IEA.