According to recent numbers released by Statistics Canada, Canada’s production of synthetic crude oil along with light and medium crude oil decreased this past spring.
Canada produced 17.2 million cubic metres (108.3 million barrels) of crude oil and equivalent products in April. This represented a decrease of 1.1 per cent compared with April of 2015.
The decrease in the production of crude oil and equivalents was mainly attributable to synthetic crude oil, which was down 24.5 per cent to 2.9 million cubic metres, largely a result of maintenance shutdowns at most oil sands facilities in Alberta.
The wild fires that struck northern Alberta occurred in May, which put a further damper on oil production from that area since most oil sands and crude bitumen operations ceased for at least a few weeks due to the fires and the dangers they posed.
Meanwhile, light and medium crude oil slid 10 per cent to 3.7 million cubic metres and heavy crude production was also down by 8.2 per cent to 1.9 million cubic metres.
Again, the comparison was made with April figures post in 2015.
Offsetting these losses in April was higher production of non-upgraded crude bitumen, up 18.3 per cent compared with the same month in 2015 to 7.4 million cubic metres. Non-upgraded crude bitumen production has been trending upward since late 2009.
Non-upgraded crude bitumen production in April consisted of mined crude bitumen (4.2 million cubic metres), plus in-situ crude bitumen (6.6 million cubic metres) , less crude bitumen sent for further processing (3.3 million cubic metres).
Alberta accounted for 78.7 per cent of Canada’s total production of crude oil in April. Production in Alberta totaled 13.6 million cubic metres, down 0.7 per cent from the same month in 2015.
Exports of crude oil and equivalent products totaled 14.1 million cubic metres in April, down 3.8 per cent from the same month one year ago. Meanwhile, imports to Canadian refineres decreased one per cent to three million cubic metres.
