Bloomberg via Getty Images Steam rises from the Suncor Energy Millennium upgrader plant near Fort McMurray, Alta. on Sept. 10, 2018. Canada's oil industry has been shut out of the recent oil price rally, with oilsands product selling at a deep discount to global oil prices.

Global oil prices have soared to their highest levels in four years, in what should be bad news for Canadian consumers' budgets and good news for the country's oil exporters. But Canada's oil industry has been shut out of the recent bonanza. Canadian oil exports are selling at their steepest discount in years, the result of industry and policymakers' inability to build pipelines to new, non-U.S. markets. While climate groups and other industry opponents celebrate victories in delaying new pipelines, the lack of infrastructure hasn't slowed Canada's oil exporters: Rather, they are increasingly turning to rail. There are now more oil trains criss-crossing Canada than ever before, and their numbers are expected to continue growing rapidly in the coming months. Western Canadian Select — the benchmark price for oilsands product — was trading at just above US$30 per barrel on Thursday, a 58-per-cent discount compared to West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark price for North American oil. Canadian oil is currently the cheapest in the world, according to data compiled by OilPrice.com.

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Though Canadian oil has long sold for less than other sources, the gap has rarely been this large. In a report Wednesday, Scotiabank said some contracts for oil were for as much as US$40 per barrel below the WTI price, an all-time record discount. The discount "has been ridiculous — it's been outrageous, actually," Martin King, director of institutional research at GMP FirstEnergy, told the Financial Post. Economists and industry insiders largely agree on the cause: The lack of infrastructure to get the oil to markets. "We are using everything we can to ship our oil, whether rail or pipelines, and we're still left with rising inventory, causing prices to be weak," National Bank Financial economist Krishen Rangasamy told HuffPost Canada on Thursday. Watch: Where does Canada get its oil from? Story continues after video.

The Canadian Press Images/Bayne Stanley A Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive pulling a long freight train, including tanker railcars, near Medicine Hat, Alta., Thurs. Sept. 6, 2018.