Canadian Oil Exports to US Drop

Canadian crude oil exports to the US have declined due to lower world oil prices, a severe winter and synthetic crude processor maintenance, industry sources said on Wednesday.

One trader said that crude oil exports could drop as much as 300,000 barrels per day by the end of spring, or about 15% of total crude exports of 2m bpd. Others said the decline was smaller.


As much as 75,000 barrels a day of dropoff is due to maintenance work on a coker at Syncrude Canada Ltd, which processes synthetic Canadian crude oil.

Enbridge, the biggest pipeline shipper of Canadian crude into the US, said its pipeline is flowing virtually full at 1.5m barrels per day.

Canada is the largest source of US imported oil, accounting for 21% of crude oil imports in December, the US Energy Information Administration said.

“They had to cut back when crude got down into the $30s and still had a discount of $6 to $8 on Canadian heavy,” a trader said. “They’ve had a severe winter in Alberta.”

Offshore Technology