Canada topples gas export volumes

The pockets of Canadian natural gas producers are bulging from new export records.

National Energy Board statistics show that revenues from the contract year of November 2004 to October 2005 edged past C$33 billion, beating the previous high of C$28.6 billion in 2000-01.

For the first 10 months of 2005, the tally was C$27.4 billion, toppling the full-year benchmark of C$26.7 billion set in 2004.

For the contract year, the board reported average export prices of C$8.19 per gigajoule, compared with C$6.52 the previous year, while volumes rose to 3.72 trillion cubic feet from 3.54 tcf.

October’s average export price of C$12.84 per gigajoule was more than double the C$6.01 in the same month of 2004, while volumes climbed to 303.2 billion cubic feet from 283.4 bcf, with shipments up to the Midwest, Northeast, Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions.

For the contract year, exports to the Midwest totaled 1.56 tcf, followed by the Northeast at 1.26 tcf, the Pacific Northwest at 446.5 bcf, California 439.1 bcf and the Rocky Mountains 14.4 bcf.

—Gary Park