A fire at Imperial Oil's 118,000 barrel-a-day Nanticoke refinery this month and a strike by Canadian National Railway has slowed down crude oil supply in Canada's most populous province.


The strike has since ended and Imperial Oil has resumed crude oil processing, but production will not be back to normal for two more weeks, extending Ontario's fuel shortage.

Petro-Canada said demand for fuel is now so high it has deliberately closed 25 small stations out of a total of 205 sites in the Toronto area as part of a strategy to keep its larger centers fueled up. The planned closures will range from 24 to 48 hours.