Oil and Gas

On this page:

• Production
• Trade and Transportation

Production

Crude Oil

• Ontario produced 498 barrels per day of light oil in 2023 (Figure 3). Ontario’s production is less than 0.1% of total Canadian oil production (including condensate and pentanes plus).
• All of Ontario’s oil production occurs in southwestern Ontario. Oil and gas resources in the province are currently extracted using conventional methods.
• Ontario’s remaining resource of crude oil is estimated to be ten million barrels as of the end of 2021.^Footnote 14
• Ontario is home to Canada’s first commercial oil production. Oil was first discovered in Canada near Black Creek (later renamed Oil Springs) in 1858. Other oil deposits were discovered in the 1860s in Petrolia, just north of Oil Springs.

Refined Petroleum Products (RPPs)

• Ontario has four refineries: Imperial Oil, Suncor, and Shell in or around Sarnia, and Imperial Oil in Nanticoke. These refineries have a total capacity of 402 thousand barrels per day  (Mb/d). Ontario and Quebec, each accounting for approximately 21% of total Canadian refining capacity, share the second-largest refining capacity in Canada, after Alberta.
• Western Canada supplies most of the crude oil for Ontario’s refineries. Between 2020 and 2023, imports accounted for around 15% of total crude oil consumed by Ontario’s refineries.^Footnote 15

Natural Gas/Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs)

• In 2023, natural gas production in Ontario averaged 6.2 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) (Figure 3). Ontario’s production was about 3% of Canada’s natural gas production in 2023. All the province’s natural gas production is in southern Ontario.
• Ontario’s remaining resource of recoverable, sales-quality natural gas was estimated to be 650 billion cubic feet (Bcf) at year-end 2021.^Footnote 16
• Plains Midstream’s Sarnia NGL fractionator is one of the main sources of propane and butane for eastern Canada. It processes NGL mix delivered from western Canada by the Enbridge Mainline (Lines 1 and 5). From Sarnia, propane is delivered by rail and truck to locations in Ontario, Quebec, other eastern Canadian provinces, and to export markets in the U.S. Midwest and East Coast.
• There is no field production of NGLs in Ontario.

Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)

• The City of Toronto, in partnership with Enbridge Gas Inc., installed a biogas upgrading facility at the Dufferin Solid Waste Management Facility in 2021.^{Footnote 17Footnote 18} The City of Toronto also identified potential biogas/landfill gas upgrading opportunities at the Disco Road Solid Waste Management Facility, Green Lane Landfill, and Keele Valley Landfill.^Footnote 19 In total, all four sites are estimated to produce 52.6 million cubic metres of RNG each year.
• Other RNG projects in partnership with Enbridge Gas Inc. are Stanton Farms in Stratford, StormFisher in London, and the Niagara Renewable Natural Gas Facility in Niagara.
• The Ridge Landfill RNG Project near Blenheim, Ontario, a partnership between Waste Connections of Canada and Enbridge Gas Inc., started construction in July 2023 and is expected to be in-service by the end of 2024.

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Trade and Transportation

Crude Oil and Liquids

• Sarnia is the major oil refining and petrochemical hub in Ontario. Sarnia receives crude oil and NGLs from western Canada and North Dakota via Enbridge’s Lines 5 and 78, which form part of the Enbridge Mainline and have capacities of 540 Mb/d and 500 Mb/d, respectively (Figure 4).
• Enbridge’s Lines 9 and 7 run eastwards from Sarnia to supply refineries further east in Ontario and Quebec. Line 9, which is not part of the Enbridge Mainline System, has a capacity of 300 Mb/d and mostly transports crude oil to Montreal, Quebec, though can also ship some oil to Westover, Ontario. Enbridge’s Line 7 has a capacity of 180 Mb/d and also delivers crude oil to Westover. At Westover, Line 9 and Line 7 connect with Westover Express and Enbridge’s Line 11.
• Line 11 has a capacity of 117 Mb/d and supplies Imperial Oil’s Nanticoke refinery. The refinery can also receive crude oil via rail. The Nanticoke refinery has a rail terminal with an estimated crude oil offloading capacity of 20 Mb/d.^Footnote 20
• Westover Express has a capacity of 74 Mb/d and delivers crude oil to the United Refining Company’s refinery in Warren, Pennsylvania, via United’s Kiantone Pipeline in the U.S. Westover Express was formerly known as Enbridge Line 10. United Refining’s subsidiary, Westover Express Pipeline Limited, acquired Line 10 from Enbridge in June 2020 and began operating it in September 2023.
• Trans-Northern Pipeline delivers RPPs, such as gasoline and diesel, from refineries in Montreal, Quebec, across the Quebec-Ontario border to major markets and distribution centres in Ontario. It includes delivery points in Ottawa, Kingston, Belleville, Oshawa, Toronto, and Oakville. Trans-Northern Pipeline also transports RPPs from Imperial Oil’s Nanticoke refinery eastward to Toronto. The pipeline operates bi-directionally between Toronto and Oakville. Total receipts on the pipeline were 153 Mb/d in 2023. Receipts on the pipeline have generally been declining over the past decade.
• Ontario has two ethane-importing pipelines. Energy Transfer’s 55 Mb/d Mariner West Pipeline ships ethane from the Marcellus producing region in southwestern Pennsylvania to the Canada/U.S. border, where the Genesis Pipeline carries the ethane onwards to NOVA Chemical’s petrochemical complex in Corunna, Ontario. The 50 Mb/d Utopia Pipeline ships ethane from Harrison County, Ohio, to Windsor, Ontario. Utopia connects with Plains Midstream Canada’s Windsor-Sarnia Pipeline, which delivers ethane either to storage or NOVA’s Corunna complex.

Natural Gas

• TC Energy’s (formerly TransCanada) Canadian Mainline begins at the Alberta/Saskatchewan border and transports western Canadian gas through the Prairies to Ontario, and through a portion of Quebec (Figure 5). The Mainline connects with other pipelines at several import/export points in southern Ontario. It also connects to the Trans Québec and Maritimes (TQM) pipeline at the Ontario/Quebec border.
• Ontario must source natural gas from outside the province to meet its needs. Historically, Ontario was largely supplied by western Canadian natural gas from the Canadian Mainline. Since 2009, Ontario has become a net importer of gas from the U.S.^Footnote 21
• The Dawn Hub, established in 1942, is one of Canada’s major natural gas storage and trading hubs. Located in southern Ontario, it consists of depleted natural gas reservoirs. A total of 387 Bcf (408 petajoules) of underground storage capacity is available at the Dawn and nearby Tecumseh storage pools, both owned by Enbridge.^Footnote 22
• On 1 January 2019, Ontario’s two main distribution companies, Union Gas and Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc., merged into one company, Enbridge Gas Inc. (EGI). EGI delivers natural gas to 3.9 million customers in over 355 municipalities in Ontario^Footnote 23 through network of roughly 151,500 kilometres (km) of pipeline.^Footnote 24 EGI is regulated by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB).

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

• Union Gas, a unit of Enbridge, operates the small-scale Hagar LNG liquefaction and storage facility 50 km east of Sudbury. Hagar has been in operation since 1968 and has 0.6 Bcf of LNG onsite storage.^Footnote 25

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Energy Use

Total Energy Consumption

• End-use demand in Ontario was 2,751 petajoules (PJ) in 2020. The largest sector for energy demand was industrial at 36% of total demand, followed by transportation at 26%, residential at 19%, and commercial at 18% (Figure 6). Ontario’s total energy demand was the second largest in Canada, and the tenth largest on a per capita basis.
• In 2020, RPPs were the largest fuel type consumed in Ontario, accounting for 1,155 PJ, or 42% of total end-use demand. Natural gas and electricity accounted for 856 PJ (31%) and 498 PJ (18%), respectively (Figure 7).

Refined Petroleum Products (RPPs)

• Ontario’s motor gasoline demand in 2022 was 928 litres per capita, 10% below the national average of 1,035 litres per capita.
• Ontario’s diesel demand in 2022 was 498 litres per capita, 36% below the national average of 772 litres per capita.
• RPP imports are mainly from Quebec, delivered via the Trans-Northern Pipeline, rail, and truck. Imports also come from refineries in the U.S. Midwest.

Natural Gas

• Ontario consumed an average of 2.8 Bcf/d of natural gas in 2023. Ontario demand was 24% of total Canadian demand, making it the largest consuming province after Alberta.
• The industrial sector in Ontario consumed the most natural gas in the province, at 1.5 Bcf/d in 2023. The residential and commercial sectors consumed 0.7 Bcf/d and 0.6 Bcf/d, respectively.

Electricity

• In 2020, annual electricity consumption per capita in Ontario was 9.4 megawatt-hours (MWh). Ontario ranked eleventh in Canada for per capita electricity consumption and consumed 35% less than the national average.
• Ontario’s commercial sector consumed the most electricity in the province in 2020 at 51.6 TWh. The residential and industrial sectors consumed 46.0 TWh and 40.4 TWh, respectively.

GHG Emissions

• Ontario’s GHG emissions in 2022 were 157.0 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT CO₂e).^Footnote 26 Ontario’s emissions have declined 12% since 1990 and 23% since 2005.
• Ontario’s emissions per capita are the third lowest in Canada, at 10.4 tonnes of CO₂e. This is 43% below the Canadian average of 18.2 tonnes per capita.
• The largest emitting sectors in Ontario are transportation at 32% of emissions, buildings (residential and commercial) at 23%, and industries and manufacturing (including iron, steel, and chemicals) at 24% (Figure 8).
• Ontario’s GHG emissions from the oil and gas sector in 2022 were 8.7 MT CO₂e. Of this total, 2.0 MT were attributable to production, processing, and transmission and 6.7 MT were attributable to petroleum refining and natural gas distribution.
• In 2022, Ontario’s electricity sector emitted 3.8 MT CO₂e emissions, or 8% of total Canadian GHG emissions attributable to power generation. Ontario’s GHG emissions from power generation peaked in 2000 at 43.0 MT CO₂e and then declined as the province phased out coal-fired generation from 2005 to 2014.
• The greenhouse gas intensity of Ontario’s electricity grid was 35 grams of CO₂e per kilowatt-hour (g CO₂e/kWh) electricity generated in 2022. This is a 84% reduction from the province’s 2005 level of 220 g CO₂e/kWh. The national average in 2022 was 100 g CO₂e/kWh (Figure 9).