As you may know, diesel supply in western Canada is currently tight.  This situation has been brought on by industry supply issues as unplanned refinery outages at other companies have reduced the amount of diesel supply available.

At Petro-Canada’s Edmonton Refinery, we are currently conducting a planned turnaround. That means our refinery is in a planned shutdown to hook up the major Refinery Conversion Project at the plant.  To execute this type of work, the plans have been in place for over a year with others in the industry well aware of our intentions.   Prior to commencing this work, we built up inventory and made third-party supply arrangements, some of which have not come to fruition.

While this tight supply situation is unexpected, we’re taking this situation seriously. In fact, we’ve got a three-point plan. We are:
1. Continuing to bring in product from outside the region.  To give you an idea of how far we are looking, some diesel fuel supplies are coming come from as far away as Russia.
2. Focusing distribution of diesel on larger more efficient sites to serve the greatest network of customers possible.
3. Managing how much and when customers can fill up to try and spread out what diesel is available among more customers and aid our ability to replenish inventory as quickly as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience this is causing our customers. That’s why we’re communicating directly with our customers daily so they can make the arrangements necessary to continue to operate their businesses.