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 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.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Caroline Stauffer )
