Michael Giberson
From the Globe and Mail:
Last year, the continental U.S. saw its natural gas production grow by 10 per cent to 55 billion cubic feet a day, powered by huge production increases from shale gas plays like the Marcellus, Haynesville in Louisiana and Texas’s Barnett field. In Canada, gas production actually declined by about 4 per cent or 700 million cubic feet a day to 15.7 billion cubic feet a day.
The leading indicator for gas production is the drill rig count – how many rigs are in the field at any given moment exploring for and developing new fields. “Drilling activity on both sides of the border is collapsing faster than a bank loaded with toxic debt,” [BMO Nesbitt Burns analyst Randy] Ollenberger said.
Of course that is partly because there are fewer promises of bailouts being dangled in front of the oil and gas exploration business.
(As the article also notes, “After touching $15 for 1,000 cubic feet in the spring of 2008, gas prices have fallen to $4.20 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and many analysts believe they have not yet bottomed out.”)