Canadian natural gas exports to the U.S. projected to decline

A new report from Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) projected that the nation’s natural gas production and domestic natural gas consumption will increase, while exports to the U.S. will decline.

According to the NEB’s most recent edition of Canada’s Energy Future, Canada is expected to increase its production of natural gas and domestic consumption through the decade. The country is also expected to increase exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asian markets as early as 2019 as a result of new LNG infrastructure and export terminals on Canada’s western coast.

The report also projected that net natural gas exports to the U.S. would fall to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day by 2025, and further shrink to a minimal volume by 2040. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, net Canadian exports to the U.S. have already fallen since 2014, possibly as a result of a U.S. domestic increase in shale resource availability. Trade relations between the countries for natural gas will continue, however, with Eastern Canada expected to continue to import U.S. natural gas.

The NEB report also found that recent technological advancements to Canada’s horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing methodologies will increase total natural gas production in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Domestic consumption will also continue to rise as the result of increases in consumption by the industrial sector.