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Premier Jason Kenney is ruling out using larger production quotas to tackle catastrophically low Canadian oil prices but is pitching joint action with the United States to prevent “predatory dumping” of OPEC crude into North America.

As global energy demand is crumbling with the fallout of the coronavirus, benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude prices continue to sink, closing Friday at US$21.51 a barrel.

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In Canada, which has the third-largest oil reserves in the world, the situation is critical for producers. The price for Western Canadian Select heavy oil closed at $5.06 a barrel.

“This is draconian,” Whitecap Resources CEO Grant Fagerheim said in an interview. “There is no profit being made by producers in Western Canada at this particular time.”

After the price discount on Alberta oil ballooned in late 2018 due to a lack of pipeline capacity, the province established mandatory monthly production quotas to support prices.