Canada’s slumbering oil industry is beginning to stir.
For years, the country’s drillers, like those in the shale fields of West Texas, have been under great pressure from their investors to avoid the kind of expansion plans that have backfired on them countless times before. So when oil blew past $70 a barrel last year, then $80 and $90 in rapid succession, executives in Calgary watched idly.
But as it soared above $100 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the potential windfall became too irresistible for some. Demand for rigs is now higher than it’s been in years, and the summer drilling season is likely to start earlier than usual, said Kevin Neveu, the chief executive officer of Precision Drilling Corp.