Natural gas transportation and distribution, October 2013

Released: 2013-12-24

Canada extracted 11.8 billion cubic metres of natural gas in October, up 1.0% from the same month in 2012. The gain was mainly attributable to increased production in Nova Scotia, Alberta and British Columbia as well as Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

Despite the increase in production, Canada's demand on gas utilities was down 8.3% in October from October 2012 to 15.3 billion cubic metres. On a year-over-year basis, total demand fell in each of the previous seven months, largely because of lower demand from the United States. Exports fell 11.9% to 6.3 billion cubic metres in October as a result of lower shipments from Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Canada's imports of natural gas were down 18.0% to 2.0 billion cubic metres in October on lower import shipments into Ontario, where higher provincial transfers from Western Canada made up for the shortfall.

Natural gas sales produced revenues of $1.2 billion in October, down 1.0% from the same month a year earlier. Sales volumes declined 4.7% while prices rose 3.8%. Lower residential natural gas revenues were the main reason for the overall decrease, falling 8.2% to $346.0 million, with warmer than normal weather in both Alberta and Ontario contributing to the decline. Tempering the loss, however, were higher sales to industrial customers, with revenues up 3.0% in October.

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