Canada’s oil production is down slightly due to spring turnarounds.

Statistics Canada is reporting the production of crude oil and similar products dropped to 22.2 million cubic meters in April.

This represents a decrease of over 2.5 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. This is the first year-over-year decline in 10 months, mainly due to seasonal maintenance activities affecting oil sands operations.

In April, the price of crude oil and bitumen experienced a decline of 18.3 per cent compared to the previous year.

After significant fluctuations in 2022 due to instability in the global energy market, the price has since stabilized since the beginning of 2023. It increased to 2.7 per cent in April compared to January.

In April, there was a 5 per cent year-over-year increase in the production of finished petroleum products.

This growth was primarily driven by the 10.4 per cent rise in the production of finished motor gasoline. Gasoline production has consistently shown year-over-year increases since March 2021. In April 2023, it was 2.3 per cent higher than its level in April 2019, which predates the COVID-19 pandemic.

Statistics Canada also reports that the consumption of finished petroleum products witnessed a 2 per cent year-over-year increase in April 2023.

Like production, this growth was mainly fueled by a significant increase in motor gasoline consumption.