Horizon

The United States has been the sole customer for Canada’s oil industry, but with energy independence on the horizon south of the border, Canadians are looking for other markets.

While acknowledging that rail shipments are a vital part of the burgeoning Bakken Shale play, North Dakota energy officials on Monday refused to speculate on the eventual impact of the oil rail car derailment and fire in Quebec, Canada, on their state’s soaring production (see Shale Daily, July 16).

Plan would also have drillers use natural gas-fueled rigs, but conflict arises between E&Ps and drilling companies regarding the use of gas at the well sites.

Lacking anything like the Bakken to its north and not seeing a major new play on the horizon, South Dakota oil and natural gas authorities nevertheless have begun the process for upgrading the state’s exploration and production (E&P) regulations, including adding provisions addressing hydraulic fracturing.

Canada’s natural gas industry will see a difficult market over the next several years, marked by lower prices, falling production and a decline in exports to the United States, but unconventionals will turn around the economy once new export terminals are completed in British Columbia (BC), the Conference Board of Canada said Monday.

With increasing demand for natural gas by power generators on the horizon and some in the energy industry lamenting a lack of coordination between gas and power interests, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) has established a board-level task force to tackle issues related to growing power demand for gas.

A “golden age” is on the horizon for natural gas across the globe, but only if the world’s unconventional resources, including shale, tight gas and coalbed methane, are developed profitably and in an environmentally acceptable manner, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a sweeping report on Tuesday.

Both cash and financial gas advanced Monday, although marketers were trying to digest mixed weather outlooks and financial traders saw nothing on the horizon to indicate market fundamentals had changed. Nationwide cash prices rose by about a nickel with strong gains reported at Northeast points and more modest advances along the Gulf. At the close of futures trading May had risen 3.5 cents to $2.016 and June gained 2.4 cents to $2.108. May crude oil was up 10 cents to $102.93/bbl.

The future of American’s shale industry is bright and the darkest shadows on the horizon are nothing more than black swans — potential problems that involve high impact risks but a low probability of occurring — according to Natural Gas Supply Association of America (NGSA) CEO R. Skip Horvath.