Canadian production of crude oil and equivalent products totalled 21.1 million cubic metres (132.6 million barrels) in September, up 5.7 per cent compared with the same month in 2017, says Statistics Canada.
Non-upgraded production of crude bitumen surpassed 9.0 million cubic metres for the third consecutive month, to reach 9.3 million cubic metres (+15.0 per cent) in September, said the federal agency on Tuesday.
In the first nine months of 2018, crude bitumen production has averaged 8.9 million cubic metres per month compared with 7.8 million cubic metres over the same period in 2017, it said.
Non-upgraded crude bitumen production consisted of in-situ crude bitumen (+1.7 per cent), plus mined crude bitumen (+7.6 per cent), minus crude bitumen sent for further processing (-11.6 per cent), added StatsCan.
“In September, production of synthetic crude oil decreased 11.8 per cent from the same month in 2017, due in part to a planned turnaround at an Alberta facility. September marked the third consecutive month in which synthetic crude decreased. Meanwhile, light and medium crude oil production increased 8.2 per cent, while heavy crude oil was down 1.7 per cent,” it said.
“Crude oil production (excluding equivalent products) totalled 19.3 million cubic metres in September, up 4.9 per cent from the same month a year earlier. Oil sands extraction, which consists of non-upgraded crude bitumen and synthetic crude oil, increased 5.0 per cent from the previous September to 13.5 million cubic metres. Over the same period, extraction of light, medium and heavy crude oils rose 4.8 per cent to 5.8 million cubic metres.”
The federal agency said Alberta produced 17.4 million cubic metres of crude oil and equivalent products in September, up 6.7 per cent from the same month a year earlier. Alberta (82.8 per cent), Saskatchewan (11.1 per cent) and Newfoundland and Labrador (3.5 per cent) accounted for the vast majority of Canadian production.
“Exports of crude oil and equivalent products were up 8.4 per cent to 16.9 million cubic metres in September. Exports to the United States by pipelines rose 1.7 per cent to 14.7 million cubic metres, and have averaged a 4.4 per cent year-over-year growth since the start of 2018,” said Statistics Canada. “Exports to the United States by other means, including rail, truck and marine continued to increase in September. This category of exports has averaged a 22.5 per cent year-over-year rise so far in 2018. Exports to other countries totalled 5.9 million cubic metres in the first nine months of 2018, compared with 1.8 million cubic metres in all of 2017.
“Meanwhile, imports of crude oil to refineries decreased 13.0 per cent to 2.6 million cubic metres from the same month in 2017.”
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