Petroleum products facts

What are petroleum products?

Refined petroleum products (RPP) are derived from crude oils through processes such as catalytic cracking and fractional distillation.

• Catalytic cracking is the process of breaking down larger, heavier, and more complex hydrocarbon molecules into simpler and lighter molecules using a catalytic agent.
• Fractional distillation is the process by which components in crude oil are separated into different parts or fractions according to their different boiling points.

Learn more about petroleum products in Canada

Petroleum refineries

Petroleum refineries transform crude oil into a wide range of refined petroleum products (e.g. gasoline, diesel). Other facilities such as asphalt plants, lubricant plants, upgraders and some petrochemical plants also process crude oil to produce a limited range of products.

Refinery activities

• Crude oil distillation: separating products from crude oil by heating
• Additional processing: (e.g. catalytic cracking, reforming, coking)
• Product blending: end-use RPPs are usually blended with additives or renewable fuels

Refinery outputs

• Transportation fuels – gasoline, diesel, aviation fuels, heavy fuel oil
• Heating oil
• Liquid petroleum gases - propane and butane from refineries
• Petrochemical feedstock
• Other products (e.g. kerosene, lubricating oils, greases, waxes, asphalt)

Text version

Crude oil refinery outputs include gas, gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil, fuel oil, lubricating oil, paraffin wax, and asphalt.

Supply and demand

In 2019, 1.72 million barrels per day of oil (100 billion litres) was shipped to domestic refineries. Canadian net production of petroleum products reached 2.5 million barrels per day (145 billion litres). Canada exported 0.7 million barrels per day (39 billion litres) and imported 0.4 million barrels per day (20 billion litres).

Domestic sales of petroleum products was 1.8 million barrels per day (106 billion litres).

Text version

Gasoline is the refined product with the highest sales volumes at 44%, followed by diesel at 28%, aviation fuels at 9%, still gas at 5% and residual fuel oil at 3%.

* Certain product shares are based on NRCan estimates.
** "Other" includes propane, butane, petro-chemical feedstocks, asphalt, petroleum coke, lubricating oils, etc.

Trade

Exports: 27% of Canadian production of refined petroleum products is exported

• 91% of Canadian refined petroleum product exports are to the U.S.
• 20% of U.S. imports come from Canada

Imports: 19% of Canadian consumption of refined petroleum products is imported

• 72% of Canadian imports come from the U.S.
• Other Canadian imports come from a wide range of countries including
  • Netherlands (9%)
  • South Korea (3%)
  • Norway (2%)

Text version

The total value of exported refined petroleum products peaked at $26.7 billion in 2012 and trended downward until 2017, before bouncing back to $20.1 billion. Exports continued to rebound through 2019, when the value of total volumes reached $22.7 billion. Imports have been more volatile, peaking at $20.0 billion in 2018, before declining to $17.2 billion in the subsequent year.

Retail prices

The average Canadian retail price in 2019 was 120.9 cents per litre for gasoline and 123.0 cents per litre for diesel. Changes in retail prices for fuel tend to mimic those for crude oil.

Average Canadian Regular Gasoline Prices, 2019

Text version

The average cost of gasoline in 2019 was 1.21 dollars per litre. 65.1% of the cost of gasoline is due to crude, refining, and marketing costs. Federal and Provincial taxes account for the rest of the cost. In 2019, gasoline prices in Vancouver averaged 1.49 dollars per litre, while in Halifax averaged 119.0 dollars per litre.

Weekly retail gasoline and diesel prices

Text version

Gasoline and Diesel prices largely track each other and were volatile between 2008 and 2019 with gasoline prices ranging from 1.41 dollars to less than 72 cents. The average gasoline and diesel price between 2008 and 2019 was 1.16 dollars.

Refinery capacity

Refinery capacity by province and type

In 2019, refineries across Canada had the capacity to process over 1.9 million barrels of crude oil per day.