Stronger December Puts Overall Sales Slightly Higher
Perhaps reflecting the influence of lower petroleum producing prices, sales were up for five of the eight major product groupings in December 2008 compared to the previous year, which percentage-wise put the annual volume at virtually the same level as in 2007, Statistics Canada reports.
Monthly overall volume increased to just over 8.57 million cubic metres, a 0.3% improvement compared to the 8.54 million cubic metres in December 2007, according to StatsCan data.
For the 12 months, overall refined product sales at about 103.96 million cubic metres were only slightly higher than the just under 103. 47 million cubic metres in the previous year.
The positive changes for December compared to 2007 involved motor gasoline, diesel, low-sulphur diesel, heavy fuel oil and aviation turbo fuels.
Showing decreases versus the previous year were light fuel oil, petrochemical feedstocks and all other refined products.
Heavy fuel oil sales showed the biggest percentage gain compared to 2007 in seven straight months.
Motor gasoline sales, which account for the most volume among the major refined product groups, were up 1.3% or about 47 500 cubic metres compared to December 2007.
“Regular unleaded gasoline, which represented about 91% of total gasoline sales, increased by one per cent,” StatsCan said in reporting sales of premium rose six per cent, while mid-grade volume fell by five per cent.
For all of 2008, gasoline sales were slightly lower at just under 42.27 million cubic metres, which translated into a break-even percentage difference from the previous year’s 42.41 million cubic metres.
Heavy fuel oil sales showed the biggest percentage and volume gain in December 2008 in rising by 17.1% or about 93 700 cubic metres versus the year-earlier period.
For the year, several high percentage monthly changes for heavy fuel oil sales did not result in the same spread for the 12-month total, which at just under 6.3 million cubic metres was down by just three per cent compared to the 6.09 million cubic metres in 2007.
(Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada’s regional offices, its World Wide Web site at http://www.statcan.ca and its toll free access number 1-800-263-1136.)
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Canadian Sales of Refined Petroleum Products |
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thousands of cubic metres | % change |
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Dec. 2008(p) | Dec. 2007(r) | Dec. 2007 to |
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Dec. 2008 |
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| Total, all products | 8 572.7 | 8 544.3 | 0.3 | ||
| Motor gasoline | 3 670.1 | 3 622.6 | 1.3 | ||
| Diesel fuel oil | 2 218.8 | 2 187.5 | 1.4 | ||
| Low-sulphur diesel | 2 015.7 | 1 923.8 | 5.0 | ||
| Light fuel oil | 486.0 | 546.2 | -11.0 | ||
| Heavy fuel oil | 641.7 | 548.0 | 17.1 | ||
| Aviation turbo fuels | 536.9 | 513.3 | 4.6 | ||
| Petrochemical feedstocks(1) | 293.8 | 392.7 | -25.2 | ||
| All other refined products | 725.4 | 734.0 | -1.2 | ||
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Jan.-Dec. | Jan.-Dec. | Jan.-Dec. 2007 | ||
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2008(p) | 2007(r) | to Jan.-Dec. 2008 | ||
| Total, all products | 103 955.1 | 103 469.7 | 0.0 | ||
| Motor gasoline | 42 265.2 | 42 414.9 | 0.0 | ||
| Diesel fuel oil | 28 051.9 | 27 733.2 | 1.0 | ||
| Low-sulphur diesel | 24 793.6 | 23 713.4 | 5.0 | ||
| Light fuel oil | 3 837.4 | 4 400.6 | -13 | ||
| Heavy fuel oil | 6 299.6 | 6 092.2 | 3.0 | ||
| Aviation turbo fuels | 6 990.0 | 6 861.7 | 1.6 | ||
| Petrochemical feedstocks(1) | 4 649.8 | 4 781.9 | -3.0 | ||
| All other refined products | 11 105.8 | 11 758.2 | -5.0 | ||
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r Revised p Preliminary |
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| (1) Materials used by refineries to produce chemicals, synthetic rubber and plastics. | |||||
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| Adapted from Statistics Canada Domestic Sale of | |||||
| Refined Petroleum Products, Publication # 45-004 | |||||
