huge credit to the organization. Despite the weather impacts, total full year production for Kearl was 263,000 barrels per day, the highest in the assets history. This compares to 222,000 barrels per day in 2020, an increase of 41,000 barrels per day for the year. And as Kearl continues to deliver on its production reliability c- commitments, including the elimination of the second annual turnaround, a full year ahead of schedule. Looking forward, we continue to be excited about Kearl's potential as we make progress on our accelerated journey to 280,000 barrels per day. And despite the slower start to the year, we reiterate our 2022 guidance of 265 to 270… our 2022 guidance of 265 to 270,000 barrels per day, reflecting the next step in production growth at the site. I would also note that this 2022 guidance reflects one major planned turnaround, expected to be executed in the second quarter of the year. I'd like to wrap up our discussion about Curl with some comments about unit cost. Another positive reflection of the asset's performance. As I mentioned on our third quarter call, continued pressure from higher energy prices and the strength of the Canadian dollar, presented some challenges in meeting our unit cash cost target of US$ 20 per barrel. In 2021, higher energy costs and the strength of the Canadian Dollar represented approximately an incremental $2.50 per barrel relative to 2020. However, if we normalized for energy costs and forex, both items ou- outside our control, our unit costs would have achieved a reduction of almost $1 per barrel from 2020 and been below the target of US$ 20 per barrel. Close management of unit costs continues to be core to our approach to maximizing profitability at CURL. And we remain focused on achieving further unit cost reductions as we go forward. So now let's talk about Cold Lake. Cold Lake has been a really positive story throughout 2021. Production for the quarter averaged 142,000 barrels per day, which was up 7000 barrels per day versus the third quarter, and 6000 barrels per day higher than the fourth quarter of 2020. This strong performance reflects the benefits of our continued focus on production optimization and reliability. And while Cold Lake experienced the same stream- same extreme cold temperatures in December, it did not have a material impact given the nature of this operation. For the year, production averaged 140,000 barrels per day, exceeding our updated guidance of 135,000 barrels per day. Our full year production at Cold Lake was driven by significant improvement to the base performance highlighting the effectiveness of our strategy to focus on reliability and optimization. We also saw the benefits from recent drilling operations which contribute almost 2000 barrels per day of production for the year. We are looking forward to continuing to benefit from these improvements in the coming year. And for 2022, we have issued guidance of 135,000 to 140,000 barrels per day for Cold Lake. Which includes a typical plant turnaround in the second quarter. Now at Syncrude, Imperial's share of production for the quarter averaged 79,000 barrels per day, which was up slightly from 78,000 barrels per day in the thir- third quarter. But down 8000 barrels per day from the fourth quarter of 2020. Unplanned downtime, coupled with extreme cold weather, presented challenges for these operations in December as detailed in the statement issued by the operator, Suncor, earlier in January. We estimate the impact to be close to 5000 barrels per day, our share in the quarter. Imperial's share of full year production averaged 71,000 barrels per day, an increase of 2000 barrels per day versus 2020. As the ownership continues its focus on improving asset reliability, we reiterate our guidance for 2022 of 75 to 80,000 barrels per day. This guidance reflects the impacts of planned maintenance in the second quarter and a major coker turnaround in the third quarter. 2021 also marked a change in the operating structure at Syncrude and we remain confident that this change will better support the continued focus on improved reliability and cost performance for this asset. So now moving to the downstream. We refined an average of 416,000 barrels per day in the fourth quarter, which was up 12,000 barrels a day versus the third quarter of 2021, and up 57,000 barrels per day versus the fourth quarter of 2020, reflecting the strong operating performance and the continuation of demand recovery we have seen throughout 2021. The fourth quarter throughput equates to a utilization of 97%, which is the highest fourth quarter utilization in over 30 years. This represents a 3% increase over the third quarter, bringing our full year utilization to 89%, which is right on the guidance we provided for 2021. And for the year, throughput was 379,000 barrels per day, up 39,000 barrels per day versus 2020. Looking forward to 2022, we have a fairly light turnaround year planned, supporting our increased guidance for 2022 of 92 to 94% utilization. Looking at cash operating costs, our downstream business continues to do an exceptional job in managing its operating costs. Full year cash operating costs were down $70 million compared to 2020 and down even more when normalizing for the rising energy prices we saw in 2021. This decrease is especially notable because over the same period, our refining throughput increased by 39,000 barrels per day and our petroleum product sales grew by 35,000 barrels per day. So we are refining more barrels and selling more product, and we're doing it at a lower absolute cost. And again, this was a year of significant turnaround activity and higher energy costs. Petroleum product sales in the fourth quarter were 496,000 barrels per day, up 11,000 barrels per day from the third quarter on continued strong demands, and up 80,000 barrels per day from the fourth quarter of 2020, reflecting significant recovery from the pandemic-related softness of 2020. We continue to see industry demand trends pretty consistent with what we saw through 2021. With gasoline and diesel demands hovering around 90 to 95% of historical levels, and jet continuing to improve, averaging around 70 to 75%. However, as mentioned, jet continues to be somewhat volatile as we experience subsequent waves of COVID-19 and the associated restrictions related to travel. Also of note is that our jet sales volumes continue to track about 10% ahead of industry, predominantly related to competitive gains we were able to capture in 2021, increasing our overall market share. And with respect to downstream margins, unlike crude prices our fourth quarter crack spreads continued to hover around the middle of the five year band, which reflects fairly steady improvement over early 2020 at the onset of the pandemic. And despite ongoing demand volatility, our continued focus on reliable and efficient operations ensures we are capturing as much value as possible in the current downstream pricing environment. Looking forward to 2022, the outlook is positive as we continue to see improvements in the market environment, driving further strengthening of our downstream business which supports our continued journey back to typical earnings and cash flows for this business segment. And I'll wrap up our operating results