Heavy oil from Canada is trading at the lowest levels in seven months versus West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude– the US benchmark – as Imperial Oil (IMO) announced increasing production from its Kearl Lake project. Currently Kearl is producing over 80,000 barrels per day but is expected to ramp up to 110,000 by year-end 2013 according to Richard Kruger, CEO of Imperial Oil. The Canadian crude benchmark is trading at a 29% discount to WTI, the largest discount seen since early February. The increase in production comes amidst a market constrained by a lack of pipeline capacity to carry crude to refineries. Some of this bottleneck is being alleviated by the use of rail to transport crude.