Wildfires and maintenance schedules exacted a toll in the second quarter, but production in Alberta has staged an impressive recovery since then.

After dropping to a 16-month low of 3.43 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, Alberta’s crude oil output rose to 3.81 million barrels per day (bpd) in October.* This was similar to the level seen last year around this time.

Averaging 3.75 million bpd year-to-date (YTD), production was up 0.5% from 2022 and at the highest level on record for the first ten months of the year.

While oil sands output was barely unchanged from a year ago, conventional (including condensates) production has been more resilient since August and was up about 2.4% YTD through October.

In terms of disposition, export volumes to international destinations and other provinces have risen 2.4% YTD while volumes used within Alberta have been weaker (-4.9%) over this timeframe.

Looking ahead, oil output is expected to hold at current levels in the coming months and get a more significant uplift after the completion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion pipeline project next year.

*Note that the previous Alberta Energy Regulator’s ST3 reports were missing some oil production data due to technical issues (to the tune of 135,000-321,000 bpd) which have now been included in their latest October ST3 report.

Answer to the previous trivia question: At $66.9 billion in 2022, Cenovus is Canada’s largest oil and gas company as measured by annual revenue.

Today’s trivia question: Which country produced the most crude oil last year?