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The natural gas sector is an extremely valuable part of Alberta’s economy, but its importance has decreased while the importance of crude oil has increased, ATB Financial noted last week. As recently as 2005, natural gas accounted for 42 per cent of Alberta’s international merchandise exports compared to 27 per cent for crude oil, ATB said in its The Owl email newsletter. Fast forward to 2017, and it was 9 per cent for natural gas versus 59 per cent for crude oil. “High prices pushed the value of Alberta’s international (which in this case really means the U.S.) natural gas exports to $32.5 billion in 2005. Low prices and reduced production resulted in just $9.4 billion worth of exports last year. The rise of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in the latter part of the aughts unlocked a large amount of shale gas in the U.S., drove down prices and changed the game in the North American natural gas market,” ATB said. “Crude oil has taken a different path. Although conventional oil production is down compared to the 1980s, oil sands production has increased more than tenfold. Despite price fluctuations, the rise in oil sands production has kept the […]
