Market Snapshot: Many companies export natural gas from Canada

Release date: 2019-11-27

Canada exports a significant amount of natural gas to the United States (U.S.). Approximately 100 companies, on average, hold authorizations from the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) that permit the exportation of natural gas from Canada. The vast majority of exporters ship natural gas by pipelines to the U.S. In 2010, nearly 120 different companies exported 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas by pipelines. As of August 2019, over 80 companies exported 7.5 Bcf/d.

Figure 1 shows the respective volumes exported by each company. The large number of Canadian companies exporting gas to the U.S. illustrates the degree to which Canadian and U.S. natural gas markets are integrated. Integration is just one aspect of Canada’s natural gas market.

Figure 1: Companies that export gas by pipelines and how much they export

Natural gas from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin is exported from 5 main export points to markets in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and U.S. Midwest. Almost 30% of exported gas is exported on the Foothills BC pipeline, at Kingsgate, British Columbia. Over 20% on the Alliance pipeline at the Elmore, Saskatchewan export point. The remaining gas leaves Canada from Emerson, Manitoba (from TC Energy’s Canadian Mainline); Huntingdon, British Columbia from the BC Pipeline; Monchy, Saskatchewan (from the Foothills SK pipeline); and from several other export points to a lesser degree (‘Other’).

Figure 2: Where Canada’s natural gas is exported from (2019)

The CER must authorize all natural gas exported from Canada, and companies are required to report export volumes each month. Natural gas export volumes by company are published by the CER: Commodity Statistics.^Footnote 1 Aggregated natural gas export values and prices are also available from Commodity Statistics.

Date modified:

2023-11-28