Imperial Oil Ltd. is cutting its crude-by-rail shipments from 168,000 barrels per day in December to "near zero" this month and its CEO is placing the blame squarely on the Alberta government's oil production curtailment order.

Fourth-quarter results from Canada's biggest oil and gas companies will likely feature some surprises, as well as revisions to forward plans, given extreme volatility in commodity prices in the last three months of 2018, financial analysts say.