Wallets

Supply-hungry natural gas producers have voted with their wallets to name Nova Scotia a drilling hot spot for the next five years. With Marathon Canada Ltd. leading the pack, nine producers pledged to do C$527 million (US$350 million) in exploration work as the price for obtaining access to 15,800 square kilometers of sub-sea gas prospects from the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board.

Supply-hungry natural gas producers have voted with their wallets to name Nova Scotia a drilling hot spot for the next five years. With Marathon Canada Ltd. leading the pack, nine producers pledged to do C$527 million (US$350 million) in exploration work as the price for obtaining access to 15,800 square kilometers of sub-sea gas prospects from the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board.

Canadians are cheering on the tight “continental” natural gas market in growing numbers as gains owed to high sales volumes and prices — driven by expanding exports to the United States — spread and multiply. The seller’s market for gas is behind Alberta government projections of a stunning budget surplus in the range of C$10-$12 billion (US$6.8-$8.2 billion) for the fiscal year that ended March 31 — or about C$4,000 (US$2,750) for every man, woman and child living in the province. Virtually all the surplus is owed to oil and gas royalties, and the gas share of them is about 70%.

Producers may be walking around barefoot and hungry after thefinancial struggle in 1998, but LDCs’ wallets are thin as well. Theexceptionally warm year cut gas distribution throughputsignificantly and several local distribution companies ended theyear in the red. Average net income declined 10% for 19 gas andcombination utilities that reported earnings last week or the weekprior.

Canadian natural-gas producers have opened up their wallets toshow they mean to make the Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP)live up to its billing as a “seed” development that will sprout agrowing new branch of the industry on the East Coast.