U.S. natural gas futures jumped as much as 10.4% on Tuesday to an over three-month high as bone-chilling weather across the United States disrupted pipeline flows and pushed up heating demand. Front-month gas futures gained 12.1 cents, or 4.2%, to $3.033 per million British thermal units at 12:33 p.m. EST, having earlier hit a peak since Nov. 5 at $3.214 per mmBtu. In the spot market, next-day power at the ERCOT North hub jumped to an all-time high of $1,489.75 per megawatt hour [Read more]
Resurgent Canadian natgas producers look to edge in on U.S. market
Canadian natural gas producers are bouncing back faster from the COVID-19 pandemic than battered U.S. shale firms, putting them in a position to boost net gas exports to the United States for the first time in five years. The opportunity for Canadian firms to take a piece of the market back from U.S. rivals reverses one of the dominant energy trends of the last decade, where U.S. shale drillers unleashed a flood of cheap plentiful gas - largely a byproduct of crude oil drilling - and pushed [Read more]
Oil prices near 13-month highs, supported by Texas cold snap
Oil prices hovered near 13-month highs on Tuesday, supported by a cold snap that shut wells in the biggest U.S. producing state Texas, although gains were capped by a wage deal in Norway that averted supply disruptions in Europe. The global rollout of coronavirus vaccinations, fuelling expectations of a recovery in the global economy and oil demand, has also kept prices buoyant. Keenly watched U.S. oil inventory data from the API industry association and Energy Information Administration [Read more]
Oil hits 13-month highs as market rebalances
Oil prices soared to their highest in about 13 months on Monday as vaccine rollouts promised to revive demand and producers kept supply reined in. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 63 cents, or 1.1%, at $60.10 after touching $60.95, the highest since Jan. 8 last year. Brent crude was up 70 cents, or 1.1%, at $63.13 a barrel at 12:15 p.m. EST (1715 GMT) after hitting a session peak of $63.76, its highest since Jan. 22 last year. Oil prices gained about 5% last [Read more]
Alberta providing another C$400 mln for oil and gas site cleanup
Canada's main oil-producing province Alberta said on Friday it will provide another C$400 million in funding to clean up inactive oil and gas wells, part of a program aimed at supporting oilfield services jobs. The funding is on top of C$400 million Alberta made available for well cleanups last year, and comes from the federal government's COVID-19 economic stimulus spending. Canada has said it will invest C$1.7 billion to clean up orphan and abandoned wells, helping maintain thousands of [Read more]
U.S. drillers add oil and gas rigs for 12th week in a row
U.S. drillers this week added oil and natural gas rigs for a 12th week in a row, the longest streak of additions since June 2017, as crude prices hit their highest in more than a year. The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose five to 397 in the week to Feb. 12, its highest since May, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said in its closely followed report on Friday. Despite rising for six months in a row, that count is still 393 rigs, or 50%, below this time [Read more]
Montney shale patch merger shines light on Canada’s premier play
ARC Resources Ltd's C$2.7 billion ($2.1 billion) bid to buy Seven Generations Energy Ltd will create the largest oil and gas producer in Canada's Montney region, and may re-energize development in one of North America's top shale plays. The combined company will have more financial strength to develop its 1.1 million net acres of land in a region that investors and drillers say has so far struggled to meet its full potential. The deal could also spur further acquisitions in a play that [Read more]
Shell LNG Canada’s coronavirus restart plan approved
Royal Dutch Shell's LNG Canada export project in British Columbia has won approval from health officials for construction to ramp back up with improved coronavirus protection measures. Work at the site was curtailed last month by an order from the Provincial Health Officer which applied to five major industrial projects in British Columbia, including LNG Canada. "Our approved restart and measured workforce increase at the project site will continue over the coming months," LNG Canada and [Read more]
Enbridge raises Line 3 replacement cost estimate by $1 billion
Enbridge has forecasted higher costs for its Line 3 replacement project citing regulatory and permitting delays, winter construction, and COVID-19 protocols, among other reasons. The pipeline operator said it estimates capital costs for the Line 3 replacement project, including the Canadian segment already in service, to be $9.3 billion from C$8.2 billion CDN. The Line 3 replacement project is in the process of doubling its capacity, which will allow it to deliver about 760,000 bpd of [Read more]
ARC Resources to merge with Seven Generations in all-stock deal
ARC Resources Ltd and Seven Generations Energy Ltd have entered a $8.1 billion all-stock merger agreement that will create Canada's sixth-largest energy company. The combined company will become the biggest operator in Western Canada's premier Montney shale play, producing more than 340,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). It will be Canada's largest condensate producer and third-largest producer of natural gas, operating under the name of ARC Resources Ltd and remaining [Read more]