Hydrocarbons power Canada’s energy expansion.

Canada produced 3,562 petajoules more primary energy in 2025 than in 2020. Nearly all of that expansion came from crude oil and natural gas. At the same time, the energy content exported from Canada grew much faster than the energy content imported, widening the country’s net export balance every year in the series.

Unit note: A joule (J) is the standard unit of energy. Driving a gasoline car for one kilometre uses roughly 2–4 million joules of fuel energy, depending on the vehicle and driving conditions. One petajoule (PJ) equals 1,000 TJ or 10¹⁵ J.

1. Oil and gas supplied 103.7% of the net production gain.

Primary energy production rose from 20,920 PJ in 2020 to 24,482 PJ in 2025. Crude oil added 2,019 PJ, natural gas added 1,461 PJ, and natural gas liquids added 214 PJ. Together those three categories contributed 3,694 PJ—103.7% of the net increase—because coal and primary electricity finished below their 2020 levels.

Crude oil production grew 19.8% and represented exactly half of primary production in 2025. Natural gas grew 21.5%. Primary electricity declined 6.3%, while renewable fuels rose 46.6% from a very small base—adding only 25 PJ across the five years.

2. Energy exports grew four times faster than imports.

Gross exports of primary and secondary energy rose from 13,398 PJ in 2020 to 16,179 PJ in 2025, an increase of 20.8%. Imports rose only 5.8%, from 3,641 PJ to 3,853 PJ. The difference between the two—the net export balance—therefore widened 26.3% to 12,326 PJ.

3. TMX expansion and crude exports.

TMX entered commercial service on May 1, 2024. Average monthly crude exports were 764 PJ in the 12 months before and 813 PJ in the 12 months after—a 6.4% increase.

4. Coal production fell after peaking in 2023.

Coal production reached 1,258 PJ in 2023 before falling to 1,075 PJ in 2025, a 14.5% decline from that peak and 3.7% below 2020. The latest 12 months through April 2026 totalled approximately 1,039 PJ, 6.9% below 2020. That is a recent decline, but the six annual observations are volatile rather than a smooth phase-out path.

These figures measure coal produced, not coal burned to generate electricity. They combine thermal and metallurgical coal, so they cannot show whether coal-fired power is being phased out.