Rain Drenches the Provost Area

Plenty of moisture had soaked into the land and also fell on highways in the area recently. Farmers are now anxiously awaiting fields to dry up enough to put seeding equipment to work. ©Provost News Photos.

Rebound in Natural Gas Prices Pushes Up Drilling Forecast
Slowdown May Not be as Dramatic as Anticipated
Natural gas activity prices are propelling drilling in the oil patch to higher levels than previously forecast according to the Petroleum Services Association of Canada.

Roger Soucy, who is president of PSAC told The Provost News in a telephone interview from his Calgary office that most of the drilling will likely take place in the last third of the year.

The price of natural gas has gone up “fairly dramatically” since last October when the forecast was calling for $6 per gigajoule but is now in the $9 to $10 range.

Spring break is now on and that creates a lull time for pricing because the heating season is over and the cooling season in the U.S. is not on yet, so the industry is at its weakest now, says Soucy.

If prices hold firm oil and gas producers “will dust off some drilling plays they have and start increasing budgets and putting that into action in the second half of the year” which could be starting near September.

The increase in annual average gas prices compared to last fall is about 30 percent but the question Soucy says, will be “is it going to stay there?”

The revised forecast is for all of Canada but there are only 75 wells being drilled from Ontario east.

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