As anticipated, there was a reported decline in the production of crude oil and equivalent products in May of this year according to the most recent release of data from Statistic Canada last week.
The downward drift in May, compared with the same month in 2014, was led by synthetic light oil which was reduced by 14.9 per cent, as well as light and medium crude production which was down by 15.5 per cent as was heavy crude oil production which was off by 8.5 per cent.
The decrease in synthetic crude oil to 3.5 million cubic metres was, in part, the result of maintenance shutdowns at two Alberta upgrading facilities. These declines were partially offset by a 3.9 per cent increase in crude bitumen production to 6.1 million cubic metres.
Despite this decline in production, Canada’s total exports of crude oil and equivalent productions for May edged upward, by exactly one per cent from the same month in 2014 to 14.2 million cubic metres. At the same time imports of crude oil and equivalent rose by 8.4 per cent to 3 million cubic metres.
Inventories of crude oil and equivalent products edged down 1.6 per cent compared with May of 2014. This inventory sat at 18.1 million cubic metres. Closing inventories from transporters (pipeline companies) declined 2.8 per cent to 15.7 million cubic metres, while closing inventories from fields and plants increased 6.3 per cent to 2.4 million cubic metres.
Canadian natural gas utilities received 11.7 billion cubic metres of total marketable gas in May, up 2.3 per cent from the same month last year. At the same time, exports of natural gas by pipeline to the United States from Canada rose 1.5 per cent to 6.1 million cubic metres, while imports of natural gas were down 12.7 per cent to 1.2 billion cubic metres.
