Supply competition

For years, the U.S. Midwest has been a perennial net exporter of natural gas to Eastern Canada. But with Marcellus/Utica and Canadian gas supplies barraging the region, that’s changing. Less Midwest gas is flowing across the border into Ontario. At the same time, Canadian gas supply that used to serve U.S. Northeast demand is being displaced to the Midwest. That’s on top of Marcellus/Utica gas that’s physically moving to the Midwest via new capacity on the Rockies Express and Rover pipelines. The result is that the Midwest’s net exports to Canada are declining and even flipping into net imports during some summer months when the market is in storage injection mode. Thus far, this reshuffling of supply has occurred at the expense of Gulf and Midcontinent gas that historically has served the Midwest. But now there’s little of that left to displace from the Midwest, even as still more supply is expected to move there. Canadian producers are banking on capturing more of the Midwest market, as are Northeast producers via expansions like Rover’s Phase II and NEXUS. In other words, there’s a fierce battle brewing for Midwest market share. Today, we look at flow dynamics and factors affecting Canadian gas flows to the U.S. Midwest.

As Canada’s natural gas exports to the Eastern U.S. have been pushed out by growing Marcellus/Utica gas supply, they’ve been flooding the U.S. West Coast. TransCanada is planning expansions of its Alberta system to send more gas across the western border, setting the stage for a showdown with Rockies gas supply. At the same time, the rise of renewable energy in California and the Pacific Northwest poses a constraint for gas demand growth in the region. Today, we look at recent shifts in border flows to the West Coast and prospects for future growth.