Canadian gas exports down, revenues up big time

Gary Park, Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Canadian natural gas exports continued their slide in May, according to the latest data from the National Energy Board, but revenues were up.

Shipments for the month were down 5.8 percent from May 2002 at 270.1 billion cubic feet, with exports for the first five months at 1.44 trillion cubic feet against 1.55 tcf over the same period last year.

National Energy Board data showed that prices in the United States for May averaged US$5.01 per million British thermal units, up nearly 55 percent from a year earlier, putting the five-month average at US$5.57 compared with US$2.75 last year.

This surge in prices yielded revenues of C$1.89 billion for producers in May and C$12.01 billion for the five months, 30.6 percent higher for May and almost double for the first five months.

Of the two biggest markets for Canadian gas, May shipments to the Midwest were off 1.2 percent to 124.1 bcf and 3.1 percent to the Northeast at 84.1 bcf.