THUNDER BAY – BUSINESS – As the price of a barrel of crude oil fell through November, Canada boosted production. Statistics Canada is reporting, production and exports rose as the price continued to fall.
The price of a barrel of oil fell through the fall. The price of Canadian oil continued to be one of the lowest in the world.
Western Canada Select ($C/bbl) is currently at $C46.25 which is a 2.01% from the previous week. A year earlier, the price of a barrel of Western Canadian Select was $C83.35. That represents a drop of $39.10 or 41.52%.
Crude oil is commonly sold in American Dollars. The dropping price of the Canadian Dollar is impacting that price. The current price of a barrel of Canada’s benchmark oil is $37.12.
The dropping price has generated market uncertainty as many companies in the Oil Patch have scaled back their budgets for 2015.
Crude oil production increases in November
Crude bitumen led the production gain, rising 8.9% to 5.7 million cubic metres. Production was also up in November for light and medium crude oil (up 6.4% to 4.6 million cubic metres), synthetic crude oil (up 1.9% to 4.9 million cubic metres) and heavy crude oil (up 0.3% to 2.2 million cubic metres).
Exports are up
Exports of crude oil and equivalent grew 8.5% in November compared with November 2013 to 14.0 million cubic metres. Shipments to the United States accounted for 97.0% of total exports for the month, delivered mainly by pipelines.
Imports of crude oil and equivalent products decreased 4.1% from the same month a year earlier to 2.7 million cubic metres.