Volume

Canadian exporters scored an 18.7% revenue gain in the last natural gas contract year. But the period also ushered in a pronounced downturn in the volume of trade with the United States. Improved prices accounted for virtually all of the increase in the total value of Canadian gas exports in the 12 months that ended Oct. 31, show records kept by the National Energy Board (NEB).

After climbing nearly 35 cents on reduced trading volume Friday, traders added another dime to the February natural gas futures rally on Monday as winter storms and freezing temperatures were expected to engulf the eastern United States later in the week. The front-month contract ventured back above $6 to close at $6.072, a gain of 10.1 cents.

Emerging high-volume natural gas shale plays may create a bubble in gas supply and cause pipeline supply bottlenecks in the Midcontinent, but their addition to U.S. supplies is vital to offset constrained Canadian imports and a lag in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, an energy industry veteran said last week.

Emerging high-volume natural gas shale plays may create a bubble in gas supply and cause pipeline supply bottlenecks in the Midcontinent, but their addition to U.S. supplies is vital to offset constrained Canadian imports and a lag in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, an energy industry veteran said this week.

The Hess Corp.-operated Sea Robin Gas Processing Plant was shut in late Tuesday morning, according to a notice by Sea Robin Pipeline. The pipeline reduced Plant Volume Reduction nominations by two-thirds for Wednesday’s gas day and said they would be cut to zero Thursday for the duration of the plant outage, during which gas will continue to be dehydrated. Shippers were encouraged to call downstream delivery point operators to see if they will be accepting gas from Sea Robin Pipeline during this outage.

Canadian exporters suffered a US$1.7 billion revenue hit as marginal volume growth failed to make up for soft prices during the first three quarters of the current natural gas trading year, records of the National Energy Board (NEB) show.

Canadian exporters suffered a US$1.7 billion revenue hit as marginal volume growth failed to make up for soft prices during the first three quarters of the current natural gas trading year, records of the National Energy Board (NEB) show.

Citing customer drafting and receipt point shortfalls, Northwest said it “lost a notable volume from its Jackson Prairie storage account” during Wednesday’s gas day. It also pointed out that Questar’s Clay Basin storage facility is currently shut in and the forecast for the Pacific Northwest called for cooler temperatures into early this week. “In anticipation of the cooler weather and to ensure the preservation of its Jackson Prairie balancing account, Northwest is providing notice that it may declare customer-specific or system entitlements for overruns for receiving parties located north of the Kemmerer Compressor Station,” the pipeline said. “In addition, Northwest will not tolerate any shortfalls from receipt points south of Kemmerer. If necessary, Northwest will cut nominations in all cycles to match any underdeliveries by upstream interconnects.”

Low-volume oil and gas operations continue to contribute significantly to the nation’s energy supply, according to the 2007 Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) national study “Marginal Wells: Fuel for Economic Growth.”