Net sales of refined petroleum products increased by 3.7 per cent last year according to information released by Statistics Canada in late November.Â
The sales of refined petroleum products in Canada in 2014 amounted to 90 million cubic metres.Â
As expected, the greatest volume of these products were gobbled up by motor vehicles gasoline users (47.1 per cent) and diesel fuel oil purchasers (32.1 per cent).Â
Aviation turbo fuel absorbed 5.3 per cent while light and heavy fuel oils took up 6.9 per cent and miscellaneous products accounted for the rest.Â
Sales of motor gasoline totaled 42.2 million cubic metres in 2014, up 3.9 per cent from the previous year. Gas stations received the majority of the distributed volumes at 24.5 million cubic metres, an increase of 1.8 per cent from 2013. Sales to secondary distributors increased 14.8 per cent to 9.7 million cubic metres.Â
On the diesel fuel front, sales were up 2.6 per cent from a year earlier to 28.9 million cubic metres. Road transport and support activities, the main contributor to the diesel fuel sales, increased 4.7 per cent to 8.4 million cubic metres.Â
Sales to secondary distributors rose 7.7 per cent to 4.7 million cubic metres compared with 2013. During the same period, sales to gas stations decreased 3.6 per cent to 3.7 million cubic metres while sales to agriculture operations decreased 7.5 per cent to 2.2 million cubic metres, which put a moderating trend into the overall increase.Â
Sales of aviation turbo fuels edged up only slightly to 7.5 million cubic metres, representing an increase of just under one per cent. Canadian airlines received the majority of the distributed volumes with 5.8 million cubic metres bought, while sales to foreign airlines totalled one million cubic metres.Â
Heating fuel (light) sales rose 1.9 per cent from 2013 to 2.5 million cubic metres in 2014. At the same time, heavy fuel oil sales also increased a healthy eight per cent to 3.7 million cubic metres.Â