It could be a tough winter for local farmers and construction companies, after several refineries slowed or stopped diesel production, causing a shortage across the Prairie provinces.

Increasing demand for diesel and refinery maintenance have left many in Western Canada scrambling to fill their trucks, tractors and combines, and Central Alberta is no exception.

“There are shortages in our network but the shortages are industry wide. There is a lot more demand than there is supply right now,” said Richard Peter, director of corporate affairs and communications at UFA.

Diesel is in such short supply that UFA has been importing 20 million to 30 million litres of fuel, about 25 per cent of its monthly supply, from Minnesota each month.

“Having anticipated the possibility of shortages, we wanted to make sure we had plans in place to take care of our customers. . . . At any given time, there are 400 rail cars en route to UFA in Canada,” said Peter.

As a result of the shortage, many UFA stations have been out of diesel or had it in limited supply only for several weeks.

“Last week in September, we looked out and said ‘OK, it’s a busy time, it’s harvest,’ and we started to manage the supply and distribution. If your customers buy 100 million litres a month but you only have 90 million to sell, then obviously there will be times when the fuel is not available,” he said.

Dennis Floate, a spokesman for Husky Energy, said the shortage was caused by plant turnarounds, equipment failures and maintenance work at several refineries.

“It’s more coincidence than anything else, that’s what’s restricting the diesel supplies,” he said.

The Husky refinery in Prince George, B.C., is still full operational, but it produces only 12,000 barrels a day, enough to serve northern B.C., said Floate.

“At a few locations we are experiencing shortages. The refineries that are still working, they are allocating supplies to their contract customers and we haven’t been affected too severely,” he said.

“It’s just a bad time of the year for shutdowns; we just finished with the harvest, the winter season is coming and a lot of economies rely on truck transportation.”

Petro-Canada’s Edmonton refinery is having planned maintenance that has cut the plant’s output since early August.

Work on an atmospheric tower at Imperial Oil’s diesel-making unit in Strathcona County has also affected Canadian supplies. As a result, the company announced on Wednesday that it will be rationing diesel for several weeks until the work is complete.

But one construction company owner who asked not to be named said oil companies are taking advantage of consumers and businesses.

The owner, who operates in Red Deer and Northern Alberta, said he was charged an eight-cent premium on each litre of diesel he bought from Petro-Canada this week.

“‘Take it or leave it,’ this is what I was told. I thought I was being held up. They told us they don’t want anybody saying anything, and I really have a feeling it’s in a lot shorter supply than they’re letting on,” he said.

A Petro-Canada spokesperson could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Peter said the extra cost of buying American and shipping the fuel will be absorbed by the company rather than the customer. He declined to comment on how much money UFA has lost because of the shortage.

“We always have to be competitive in terms of our price. If there are additional costs, you have to find a way to put that into your price. Seventy per cent of UFA’s revenue comes from petroleum products, so the costs of getting that up here will probably come out of profit margins.”

Peter said demand should relax a little once harvest season is finished, but that still might not mean the end of the shortage.

“For UFA, it will mean that some of the pressure comes off, but those issues facing refineries will always be there,” he said.

Contact Paige Aarhus at paarhus@reddeeradvocate.com