Ontario

Traffic continues to grow on the northbound natural gas freeway from the United States into Ontario and Quebec, fueling plans to increase delivery capacity on the Canadian side of the border.

A Canadian energy entrepreneur on Thursday unveiled plans to build an underground transmission project linking natural gas and renewable energy resources in Ontario (ON) to Pennsylvania.

A summer of dueling over services and tolls on the crowded eastern end of TransCanada Corp.’s natural gas Mainline ended Friday in a deal to eliminate the cause of the fight by adding capacity.

TransCanada Corp. raised C$296 million in the first use of new freedom to charge as much as the market for transportation services will bear at the eastern end of its natural gas Mainline from Alberta to Ontario, Quebec and connections to the eastern United States.

TransCanada Corp. moved Thursday to calm a hornets’ nest of protest among its natural gas customers in Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States by making a formal promise to maintain service continuity.

Competition from U.S. exporters in Ontario and Quebec has a silver lining for sponsors of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia (BC).

Marcellus Shale gas will push out some gas traditionally imported from Dawn, ON, later this year as new pipeline expansions come online, Bentek Energy LLC said in a market note.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has refused to reconsider its decision to throw out a ban on oil and natural gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest. Judge Jane Richards Roth denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc that was requested by the Sierra Club, the Allegheny Defense Project (ADF) and Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, which are appellants in the case Minard Run Oil Company v. United States Forest Service et al. (Case No. 1-09-CV-125, Appeals Docket No. 10-2332). Last September the appeals court’s three-judge panel ruled that the U.S. Forest Service could not refuse to give operators permission to drill in the forest while an environmental impact study was being conducted (see NGI, Sept. 26, 2011).

Ontario-based Epsilon Energy Ltd., which is working with Chesapeake Energy Corp. in the Marcellus Shale, said Friday it ended 2011 with a “substantial” increase in Pennsylvania natural gas production, which was in line with its exit guidance.