Crude oil and natural gas production and electricity generation rose in January, while coal production declined compared with the same month in 2018, says Statistics Canada.

The federal agency reported on Friday that Canada produced 22.3 million cubic metres (140.3 million barrels) of crude oil and equivalent products in January, up 3.1 per cent from the same month a year earlier.

“January was the first month of temporary production cuts in Alberta (by the provincial government). Compared with December 2018, Canadian production of crude oil and equivalent products was down 5.8 per cent,” it said, adding that the production of crude bitumen was most affected by the temporary cuts.

“Bitumen production declined 7.3 per cent compared with January 2018 to 8.0 million cubic metres. The decrease was offset by robust synthetic crude oil production, up 16.5 per cent to 6.0 million cubic metres, while equivalent products (+9.4 per cent) and light and medium crude oil production (+6.8 per cent) were also up. Heavy crude oil production totalled 2.0 million cubic metres, unchanged from the same month a year earlier.”

StatsCan said Alberta produced 18.0 million cubic metres of crude oil and equivalent products in January, up 2.5 per cent from the same month a year earlier, and accounted for 80.7 per cent of total production.

Alberta’s production was 7.1 per cent lower compared with December 2018. Saskatchewan (10.9 per cent of total production) and Newfoundland and Labrador (5.6 per cent) were also key producing provinces in January, it added.

“Pipelines in Canada received 19.6 million cubic metres of crude oil and equivalent products from fields and plants in January, down 12.4 per cent compared with the same month in 2018. The vast majority of these receipts (85.7 per cent) originated in Alberta,” said the federal agency.

“Over the same period, pipelines delivered 7.9 million cubic metres of crude oil to Canadian refineries, down 2.1 per cent. Of the total volume, 64.4 per cent was delivered to refineries in the western provinces.”

– Mario Toneguzzi for Calgary’s Business

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