An order to devise a storage delivery service that would prevent pipeline traffic jams from depressing Canadian natural gas prices has been given to TC Energy Corp.’s supply collection grid, Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL).

After a seven-month review, the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) directed NGTL Thursday to submit the new plan by June 30 for its network spanning Alberta and British Columbia (BC).

CER rejected a request by the 140-company Explorers and Producers Association of Canada (EPAC) for a one-year extension of an emergency service that NGTL accepted in mid-2019 as a temporary, two-year antidote to severely depressed prices.

NGTL assured CER that it has been developing a permanent storage delivery program that would help its gas-producer customers without...