Canada’s oil & gas sector saw $63B in profit in 2022

Late last month, Statistics Canada updated their “oil and gas extraction revenues, expenses, and balance sheet” tables to include data for 2022.

What we see is that revenue is up from the previous year, increasing from $175.7 billion in 2021 to $269.9 billion last year, an increase of $94.2 billion, or 53.6%.

Expenses and deductions also increased, however. In 2021, Canada’s oil and gas extraction sector had $140.5 billion in total expenses and deductions. Last year, it increased by 47.1% to $206.7 billion, a jump of $66.2 billion.

Despite having the largest annual increase in spending since 2015 (the oldest data in this dataset), the sector saw huge profits: nearly doubling from 2021.

Last year, net income (which Statistics Canada defines as total revenue minus total expenses and deductions) sat at $63.1 billion. That’s a $27.98 billion increase over the $35.2 billion in net income the sector saw the year before, or 79.6%.

Since 2015, the oil and gas extraction sector in Canada saw a loss of profits in 5 of those years.

Statistics Canada reports that the increase in revenue for the industry was due to an increase in the price of oil and gas, as well as an increase in production volumes.

The increase in expenses were apparently driven primarily by a 128% increase in oil royalties and a 16.3% increase in operating expenses.

Meanwhile, the number of payroll employees increased just 4.6% between December 2021 and December 2022, rising by 2,451, from 52,888 to 55,339.

Employment levels last year were still below 2015 levels. The sector reported 61,795 payroll employees in December 2015.