Crude oil production in Canada was down 11.6 per cent in May of this year compared with May of 2015, according to information released by Statistics Canada this past week.
Canada produced 14.7 million cubic metres (M3) or 92.8 million barrels of crude oil and equivalent products in May.
One of the major contributing factors were the wildfires in northern Alberta that temporarily curbed oil production at some oil sands sites plus ongoing maintenance of their facilities.
The decline was primarily driven by a drop in synthetic crude which was down over 50 per cent to 1.7 million M3 in May. This was the lowest level of synthetic crude production since July of 2005.
Production on non-upgraded crude bitumen dropped 1.8 per cent to eight million M3 in May, while light and medium crude oil production declined four per cent to 3.8 million M3. Heavy crude production fell 7.7 per cent to 1.9 million M3.
Non-upgraded crude bitumen consisted of mined crude bitumen plus in situ crude bitumen, less crude bitumen sent for further processing.
Alberta accounted for 74.4 per cent of Canada’s total production of crude oil and equivalent products at 11 million M3, down 18.3 per cent from the same month in 2015 to reach its lowest level since September 2011.
Exports of crude amounted to 14 million M3, down 1.2 per cent from May of 2015. Meanwhile imports to Canadian refineries increased by 13 per cent to 3.4 million M3, the highest level since August 2013.
Closing inventories of crude oil and equivalent products totaled 17.3 million M3 in May and closing inventories held by pipelines and terminals were 11.1 million M3, while those from fields and plants totaled 2.2 million M3 that those held at refineries were at 4 million.
Canadian marketable natural gas totaled 12.9 billion M3 in May.
