The production of crude oil and equivalent products reached a record high in Canada in November of last year.
The increase was attributed to synthetic crude oil production which was up by 17.5 per cent to 5.8 million cubic metres and non-upgraded crude bitumen which was up 9.8 per cent to 7.7 million cubic metres.
The production of light and medium crude oil was down, however, by 3.6 per cent to 3.8 million cubic metres and heavy crude oil production was also down 3.3 per cent to 1.9 million cubic metres. This maintained a continual and steady decline in recent months, said Statistics Canada in their February report.
Non-upgraded crude bitumen consisted of mined crude bitumen (6.9 million cubic metres) plus in situ crude bitumen at 7.4 million cubic metres minus crude bitumen sent for further processing (6.6 million cubic metres).
Alberta produced 16.7 million cubic metres of crude and equivalent products which was up 8.6 per cent from November 2015. It accounted for 80.7 per cent of Canada’s total production. Saskatchewan produced 2.3 million cubic metres or 11 per cent of the total while Newfoundland and Labrador at 1.2 million cubic metres represented 5.7 per cent of total Canadian production.
Input of crude oil to Canadian refineries totalled 7.7 million cubic metres with conventional oil representing almost two-thirds of the total. Light and medium crude and synthetic crude were the main types of oil used by Canadian refineries. Oil to Canadian refineries increased 1.2 per cent.
Exports of crude oil and equivalents increased 13.5 per when comparing November 2015 exports to November 2016. The volume exported reached 16.8 million cubic metres, the highest level since January 2016. The vast majority at 87.2 per cent was exported via pipelines with rail, truck and marine transportation accounting for 12.8 per cent of the total.
