Exports

Volumes rose but prices fell across the board in the natural gas trade among Canada, the United States and Mexico during the first half of this year, according to the latest scorecard kept by the U.S. Department of Energy.

U.S. pipeline capacity for natural gas exports to Mexico has not only rapidly expanded in recent years, but it is expected to nearly double over the next three, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

A group of Central and Eastern European ambassadors to the United States on Monday urged congressional leaders to greenlight U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe.

With an eye toward winter weather, natural gas price volatility is likely to return in 2017, given the prospect for potential capacity constraints and ever-larger exports to Mexico to support gas-fired generation, according to ConocoPhillips’ Jim Duncan, who directs commodity market research.

U.S. exporters are edging closer to overtaking Canadians in cross-border traffic in natural gas, according to the latest trade scorecard of the United States Department of Energy.

Traders of physical gas for weekend and Monday delivery must have had one eye on the futures screen as both markets sustained about equal losses.

The natural gas supply story (too much, too cheap) is all too familiar. Trending, though, is the demand story of gas-fired power generation and exports to Mexico. Spectra Energy Corp./Partners LP executives were enthusiastic about both during a second quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday.

Henry Hub natural gas spot prices reached a nine-month high in June, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which bumped its forecast for 2016 prices up to $2.36/MMBtu, with 2017 prices expected to average $2.95/MMBtu.

The prolonged decline in the nation’s oil and natural gas rig count, falling production and a dwindling inventory of drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells, paired with the long-awaited increase in gas demand from nearly every corner of the market, could signal a recovery in commodity prices sooner rather than later.