Canada’s Natural Gas Production Climbs: Alberta Leads

December 13, 2017

Alberta, British Columbia

Marketable natural gas production in Canada totaled 13.4 billion cubic meters in September, up 3.6% from the same month a year earlier, Canada’s statistics bureau said. Alberta (73.4%) and British Columbia (24.2%) continued to account for most of Canadian production in September.

In August, natural gas transmission pipelines received 533.6 million gigajoules of natural gas from fields, gathering systems and plants. This amount is unchanged compared with the same month in 2016. Alberta maintained 73.8% and British Columbia held 24% of production in August.

Natural gas transmission and distribution systems delivered 200.8 million gigajoules to industrial, 16.2 million gigajoules to commercial and institutional, and 14.3 million gigajoules to residential consumers in August.

Alberta delivered natural gas amounting to 136.9 million gigajoules in August. 95.3% was delivered to the industrial sector and these deliveries accounted for 56.4% of the natural gas consumed in Canada.

In Ontario, 39.9 million gigajoules of natural gas were delivered. The industrial sector received 63% of these deliveries, followed by the residential (18.7%) and commercial (18.3%) sectors.

Inventory check, exports and imports

Canada’s Natural Gas Production Climbs: Alberta Leads — Canadian monthly natural gas inventories
Source: CANSIM table 129-0005.

Opening inventories of natural gas in Canadian facilities totaled 917.2 million gigajoules in August. Over the month, inventories rose 6.9% to close at 980.9 million gigajoules – storage facilities tend to build inventories during the summer, in preparation for the colder months ahead. Inventories of natural gas in Western Canada rose 4.5% to close the month at 689.2 million gigajoules, while inventories in Central Canada increased 13.2% to close at 291.7 million gigajoules.

NatGas exports to U.S. down almost 3%

Canada exported 270.3 million gigajoules of natural gas by pipeline to the United States in August, down 2.8% from the same month in 2016. Meanwhile, imports of natural gas from the United States totaled 51.0 million gigajoules, down 13.1% from August 2016.