Canada

Because of low natural gas prices EnCana Corp. has shut in some wells in both the United States and Canada that produce “a couple of hundred million cubic feet a day,” CEO Randy Eresman said last week.

Because of low natural gas prices EnCana Corp. has shut in some wells in both the United States and Canada that produce “a couple of hundred million cubic feet a day,” CEO Randy Eresman said Monday.

If the U.S. natural gas rig count this year remains at around 700 and Canada has about 50 gas rigs running, North American gas production by early 2010 “will be 10% lower and headed south pretty quickly,” Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said last Tuesday.

If the U.S. natural gas rig count this year remains at around 700 and Canada has about 50 gas rigs running, North American gas production by early 2010 “will be 10% lower and headed south pretty quickly,” Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said Tuesday.

With substantive heating load retreating largely to the sparsely populated Upper Plains of the U.S. and western half of Canada, and only a modest amount of power generation demand for air conditioning having built up in the southern U.S. to replace it, most points fell Monday.

The market was marginally stronger Tuesday as forecasts of Midwestern lows not far above freezing joined sub-freezing predictions for the Rockies and much of Western Canada in creating extra heating load. Overall temperatures, however, were expected to get no lower than chilly (40s) in most areas, and thus flat to higher numbers only modestly outnumbered losses.

Canada’s only 100% natural gas energy trust, Calgary-based Paramount Energy Trust (PET), said Tuesday it plans to buy cross-town explorer Profound Energy Inc. in a friendly stock transaction worth an estimated C$113 million (US$90 million).

Low temperatures around freezing or lower were due to keep spreading Friday in the Midwest, Midcontinent, Rockies and Western Canada, and that kept prices rising in most of the cash market Thursday. The recent firmness will be hard-pressed to sustain itself Friday, though, after storage inventories were reported to be already rising prior to the traditional end of the withdrawal season.

In a move intended to focus more attention on unconventional natural gas plays, Calgary’s Talisman Energy Canada and affiliate Fortuna LP said Wednesday they are selling legacy properties in southeastern Saskatchewan and Daniels County, MT, for C$720 million.