AI Analysis: Crude oil and petroleum products inventories, held by domestic transporters, by product type, monthly

Executive Summary

This Statistics Canada dataset (Table 25100075) tracks monthly crude oil and petroleum product inventories held by Canadian pipeline transporters across 8 regions from January 2020 to January 2026, encompassing 2,336 rows and 32 unique time series. Crude oil and equivalents dominate inventory volumes at an average of ~3.78 million cubic metres — nearly 9 times higher than Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids and Refined Petroleum Products (~422,000 m³) — while the overall distribution is heavily right-skewed, with a mean of 2.2 million m³ versus a median of just 480,000 m³. Outlier analysis identified 37 anomalous data points (1.7% of records), some likely tied to COVID-19-era supply chain disruptions in 2020–2021.

Key Findings

• The dataset covers 73 monthly periods (January 2020 – January 2026) across 8 geographies and 2 product types, producing 32 unique time series defined by region, product, and inventory category combinations.
• Crude oil and equivalents hold dramatically larger inventories (mean ~3.78 million m³, max 17.55 million m³) compared to Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids and Refined Petroleum Products (mean ~422,000 m³, max ~1.59 million m³).
• The overall inventory distribution is strongly right-skewed, with a mean of 2.2 million m³ nearly 5 times the median of 480,000 m³ and a standard deviation of 4.19 million m³ — nearly twice the mean — indicating a few very large inventory holdings drive aggregate totals.
• Opening and closing inventories are nearly identical in distribution for both product types, confirming stable month-to-month inventory transitions with minimal net stock changes across the 6-year period.
• 37 outliers were flagged out of 2,188 valid records (1.7%) using a z-score threshold of |z| > 2.5, with some anomalies likely attributable to pandemic-era demand shocks and supply chain disruptions in 2020–2021.
• The interquartile range of 1,480,026 m³ — with 50% of values falling between 86,552 and 1,566,579 m³ — reflects high variability across product types and regions, underscoring the geographic concentration of pipeline-held inventories in key producing provinces.
• All inventory data reflects pipeline transporters exclusively, meaning the dataset captures a specific and strategically critical segment of Canada's petroleum supply chain rather than total national storage.