High oil prices fuel Calgary Stampede party comeback

The Calgary Stampede, the largest outdoor rodeo in the world, sits at the center of an oil province that holds the fourth-largest proven reserve on the planet. In 2022, with pandemic rules largely gone and crude trading around US$100 a barrel, the annual rodeo and networking circuit regained the easy-money mood that had been missing when the oil patch weakened.

After a two-year slump in oil prices and May wildfires that displaced thousands, the Stampede felt tamer in 2016. When prices firmed in 2018, spending at Stampede parties began to recover. By 2019, Canadian energy executives still flocked to Calgary, but many were frustrated by an industry that was only partly back on its feet even after some price recovery.

Higher crude prices tend to pad company budgets in Calgary, but they also push up fuel costs and sharpen the debate over inflation and affordability across Canada. Higher crude prices revive climate policy arguments over how quickly the country should move away from oil while still relying on it to fund jobs, investment and provincial revenue.

In northern Alberta, large oil-sands projects have anchored the industry for years. In 2015, ConocoPhillips began commercial operations at the 118,000-barrel-per-day phase 2 expansion of its Surmont project.