An analyst at CIBC World Markets believes Canadian oil sands production is likely to increase at a much faster pace than current industry projections.
Andrew Potter said he expects production from the oil sands of northern Alberta, the world's third biggest crude resource, to jump to 2 million to 2.5 billion barrels a day by 2020 from last year's output of 1.6 million bpd, Reuters reported on Friday.
The most recent forecast from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers calls for an increase of 1.4 million bpd.
"While long-term company forecasts are inherently optimistic, as, in reality, financing, inflation and crude oil price volatility wreak havoc with the best-intentioned plans, this is, nonetheless, a considerable gap," Potter wrote in his report.
Late Wednesday Enbridge (TSX: T.ENB, Stock Forum) said it would spend more than $3 billion on a series of pipeline projects to move western Canadian crude to refineries in the east.
"It helps alleviate some of that pressure," Potter said. "But the whole point of this report is to say that there is going to continue to be big pressure on infrastructure and we just need to see more and more of these things go ahead."