OTTAWA: Following sharp declines in March and April, Canadian oil supplies saw a slight rebound in May, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which issued its monthly report on the oil market on Friday. Output fell by a total of 650,000 bbls/d over the past two months to 4.35 million bbls/d, according to the latest consolidated data published by Statistics Canada through April. In May, however, preliminary data suggest Alberta oil production saw a slight recovery, “contrary to our earlier expectations.”
Alberta oil output was 110,000 bbls/day higher month-on-month, despite continued outages at Syncrude’s Mildred Lake upgrader. The 350,000 bbl/d plant, hit by a fire in mid-March, is now expected to return to full production by August, two months behind the original schedule as maintenance planned for later in the year was moved up while the facility was offline and as the plant was hit by another minor fire in July. Total Canadian oil supplies are forecast to expand by 220,000 bbls/d in 2017 and 180,000 bbls/d next year.
