Canadian gas export revenues to the United States on upswing

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Canadian natural gas exports to the United States continue to trail 2002 in volumes, but revenues made strong gains to the end of July, according to the latest National Energy Board statistics.

For the first seven months, shipments were 1.99 trillion cubic feet, down about 150 billion cubic feet from the same period last year. At the same time, revenues surged to C$15.97 billion from C$9.46 billion.

For the November-July period of the 2002-03 contract year, shipments slipped 1.9 percent to 2.7 tcf, while revenues mounted by 69.8 percent to C$20.39 billion.

The cash flow bonanza mirrored the rebound in average prices for the first nine months of the contract year to US$5.11 per million British thermal units from US$2.77 in the same period of 2001-02.

Of the regional markets for Canadian gas, exports to the U.S. Midwest over the nine months were actually up 3.2 percent to 1.2 tcf, but down by 12.1 percent in July at 125.5 bcf. For the U.S. Northeast the nine-month tally was up 5.7 percent at 856.8 bcf and down by 4.2 percent in July at 86.8 bcf.

The heaviest nine-month declines occurred in the Rocky Mountain region at 97.5 percent to 11.1 bcf and 20.6 percent to 293.5 bcf in the Pacific Northwest.