OTTAWA: The amount of oil being shipped by rail in Canada has declined in the second quarter of 2015, the National Energy Board reports.
New figures compiled by the National Energy Board show a sharp decline in the amount of crude exported by rail so far this year.
Nearly 84,000 barrels a day moved south of the border on trains in the second quarter.
But that’s about 30 per cent less than the nearly 120,000 barrels a day that were exported by rail in the first quarter.
The rail companies have noted the decline in their financial reports.
It’s an even sharper drop from the roughly 159,000 barrels a day in the last three months of 2014.
But it’s not nearly as low as the 15,980 barrels a day that were exported by rail in the first quarter of 2012. By the last quarter of 2013, that figure had jumped to 146,047 — a more than nine-fold increase in under two years, according to NEB figures.
The plunge in crude-by-rail exports this year comes amid a severe weakening in crude prices — from above $107 US a barrel around the middle of last year to roughly $40 US now.
The U.S. already has an oversupply of its own oil and there has been a net decline in exports of oil from Canada despite the falling prices.
