Energy Sources

Retail Fuel Prices by Province

• British Columbia
• Alberta
• Saskatchewan
• Manitoba
• Ontario
• Quebec
• Yukon
• Northwest Territories
• Newfoundland and Labrador
• New Brunswick
• Prince Edward Island
• Nova Scotia

NOTE: Prices include taxes

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Explanatory Notes for Margin Calculations

Note: These margins calculations are approximations and do not reflect actual information from refiners. Therefore, actual refining margins may be different than those presented above.

Marketing margin: refers to the difference between the retail price of the refined product (before taxes are applied) and the wholesale refined product price:

Marketing margin = Retail prices (before taxes) - Wholesale (rack) price

Refining margin: refers to the difference between the wholesale gasoline price charged by the refiner and the price of crude oil (including transportation costs) which is a key input in the refining process:

Refining margin = Wholesale (rack) price - Crude oil price (including transportation costs)

Wholesale prices are collected directly from Canadian wholesalers and are reported daily (weekdays only) in Canadian cents per litre. Wholesale prices are not taxed; all taxes are applied to the pump price at the retail level. Weekly and monthly reports follow the same methodology as retail gasoline.

The prices reflect a snapshot of wholesale prices at a particular point in time and at specific locations. Prices can vary significantly from day to day and city to city. Prices are for specific urban centres and do not represent provincial or state averages.

The retail pump and ex-tax pump prices used to calculate margins and components, are sourced from the relevant daily, weekly or monthly averages.

Simplifying Assumptions for Crude Oil Prices

The crude oil price, which is used to estimate the refining margin, is calculated based on three factors:

1. Crude oil feedstock

• There are two main types of crude oil: light and heavy; and
• Light crude oil requires less processing to be refined into petroleum products; however, it tends to be more expensive than heavy crude oil which requires additional equipment and investment to refine.

Data in 2015 on the shares of light and heavy crude used in the refining process come from Statistics Canada Table 134-0001 Refinery supply of crude oil and equivalent.

2. The price of crude oil

To ensure accuracy, the price for each type of crude oil used in this analysis is determined by taking an average of reported prices drawn from both public and private sources. A representative source for the price of each crude type is identified below.

The price for each type of crude oil is then weighted by its share of the feedstock blend to calculate a representative price for the region.

3. Transportation costs

Where applicable, crude oil transportation costs have been identified for each region.

Western Canada

1. Crude oil feedstock
   • Refiners in Western Canada currently use a blend of feedstocks consisting of:
     • 69% light crude; and
     • 31% heavy crude.
2. Crude oil prices
   • Given that the majority of the light crude used in Western Canada consists of synthetic crude oil from upgraders, the reference price used for the light crude oil in this region is Synthetic Crude Oil; and
   • The reference price used for heavy crude is Western Canadian Select.
3. Transportation costs
   • In Western Canada, crude oil prices are not adjusted to reflect transportation costs since refineries in Western Canada are typically located close to oil production areas.

Ontario

1. Crude oil feedstock
   • Refiners in Ontario currently use a blend of feedstocks consisting of:
     • 85% light crude; and
     • 15% heavy crude.
2. Crude oil prices
   • In Ontario, the majority of the light crude comes from domestic conventional production, and therefore the reference price used for the light crude oil is Canadian Light Sweet;
     • Note that in the attached link, the Canadian Light Sweet price is available as a differential to West Texas Intermediate (WTI), therefore to compute the Canadian Light Sweet price, the WTI price must also be collected for the same date; and
   • The reference price used for heavy crude is Western Canadian Select.
3. Transportation costs
   • For Ontario, transportation costs are calculated based on the pipeline toll from Edmonton to Sarnia. Pipeline toll information is available from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Quebec and Atlantic Canada

1. Crude oil feedstock
   • Refiners in Quebec and Atlantic Canada currently use a blend of feedstocks primarily made up of light crude.
2. Crude oil prices
   • In Quebec and Atlantic Canada refineries have traditionally imported light crude oil. The global benchmark for light crude oil is Brent.
3. Transportation costs
   • These shipping costs are based on the annual average of dirty tanker rates from the UK to the U.S. East Coast. In 2015, the average tanker rate was $2.19 USD per barrel (Source: Bloomberg).
   • In addition to the tanker costs, the pipeline toll to transport crude oil from tidewater to the refinery consists of two tolls:
     • From Portland to the U.S. / Canadian border
     • Followed by the U.S. / Canadian border to Montreal

Notes on Crude Oil Prices

Crude prices are collected daily (weekdays only) from a number of crude oil reporting sources, and the exchange rates used are from the Bank of Canada. All prices, as well as tariffs and exchange rates, are used to calculate daily averages that are then converted to metric measurements. Weekly and monthly amounts are calculated using an average of the daily totals.

The crude price basis used for Montreal and all markets east of Ontario is the monthly average Brent crude price for the relevant day, week, or month. The crude price used in Ontario (as of September 2016) is a light/heavy blend using Canadian Light Sweet and Western Canadian Select (WCS) respectively. The crude price used for all cities west of Ontario (as of September 2016) is a blend of Synthetic Crude (SCO) and (WCS). This is meant to approximate the regional disparities of facility-specific crude acquisition costs. Prior to October 2011, all markets used the reported average for Edmonton Par.

As of October 2011, markets east of Ontario changed to a monthly average crude price using Brent.

Between January 2014 and September 2016, Western Canada monthly average crude price changed to Western Canadian Select, and Ontario changed to a light/heavy blend of (WTI and WCS).