Western Canada Suffering Diesel Shortages

Refinery outages are creating a shortage of diesel fuel in Western Canada. Some of the outages were planned maintenance, but some have been unexpected.

Companies with off-line refineries include Suncor, whose Northern Alberta plant suffered an unscheduled outage in August due to a faulty hydroeater and isnt pumping any fuel, and Petro-Canadas 135k BPD refinery in Edmonton, which shut for a $2.4bln refit and is not expected to resume production until the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Imperial Oil is rationing diesel supplies as it continues planned work on an atmospheric tower at its 187k BPD Edmonton refinery. The company expects to be back to normal production levels within weeks and is importing diesel fuel in the interim.

Petro-Canada said the current shortage is largely the result of an unexpected jump in demand, which has overtaken the companys ability to supply.