Canada

With a growing generation portfolio elsewhere in North America, Canada-based Fort Chicago, the backer of one of two remaining proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Oregon, is also looking longer term to develop gas-fired generation plants around the Pacific Northwest. The effort will go forward whether or not its Jordan Cove LNG project at Coos Bay, OR, ever gets built.

It would seem that a day with forecast lows in single digits and the teens in many parts of Western Canada and the northern half of the U.S., accompanied by mercury levels due to bottom out around freezing in northerly reaches of the South, should be sufficient to cause rising spot gas prices. But it wasn’t so Wednesday.

An online petition calling on Quebec Premier Jean Charest to resign for not placing a moratorium on shale gas development in the province, among other things, had surpassed more than 224,000 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

ConocoPhillips during 3Q2010 curtailed about 180 MMcfe/d in North America, mostly in Western Canada, in response to continuing low natural gas prices, the producer said last Wednesday.

Heeding forecasts that the cold wave enveloping Canada and much of the U.S. was already about to start receding in some areas, traders followed up Wednesday’s across-the-board gains with generally moderate losses at nearly all points Thursday. The previous day’s 6.2-cent decline by expiring November futures and expectations of another stout storage build being reported also were negative influences on the cash market Thursday.

ConocoPhillips during 3Q2010 curtailed about 180 MMcfe/d in North America, mostly in Western Canada, in response to continuing low natural gas prices, the producer said Wednesday.

Moderately cool remained the weather watchwords for most of the U.S. and Canada, yet even with a second preceding day of futures weakness cash prices continued to stave off any substantive declines Thursday.

South Korean producer STX Energy Co. has paid Encana Corp. C$152 million (US$144 million) to acquire the Maxhamish natural gas field in northwestern Canada. Estimated reserves in the Canadian gas field are about 120 Bcf. Current output from the field is 20.5 MMcf/d. STX said it plans to raise output to around 27 MMcf/d in the near term. Annual sales are expected to be C$40 million for at least 30 years, the producer said. South Korea imports nearly all of its energy, and STX said it plans to look for more investments overseas in the near term.

Except for flat to slightly higher numbers in Western Canada and El Paso’s Bondad pool, prices continued to slip at nearly all points Friday. Cooling load remained fairly high throughout most of the southern third of the U.S., but that was overcome by forecasts of little more than warm weather in northern market areas, the previous day’s drop of 6.8 cents by September futures and the usual weekend decline of industrial demand.