Oil gets most of the headlines but Canada’s natural gas is a key part of the energy mix, meeting 30% of the country’s energy needs. Canada is the world’s fifth-largest natural gas producer, with a product that is affordable, abundant and clean-burning.
In addition to providing thousands of jobs across Canada, the natural gas industry contributes significant revenue to provincial and federal government coffers through royalties and taxes that help pay for health care, education and other social programs.
Although natural gas is used heavily by Canadian residential homeowners, it also has other industrial uses. Heavy-duty fleet owners, for instance, are switching to natural gas to fuel their trucks and buses to reduce fuel costs and to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Natural gas is also used extensively in the industrial sector both as a heat source and as a feed stock for a number of industrial processes in the petrochemical industry.
But as with other fossil fuels, the price of natural gas can be volatile as supply and demand fluctuates.
Businesses utilizing natural gas resources tend to share similar concerns with those using oil: How do I manage and protect my business against unforeseen market volatility and related costs?
With those concerns in mind, we provide customers the ability to spread risk through various hedging strategies rather than using a more volatile single supply arrangement.
Managed Natural Gas
Our program offers tools for businesses to manage risk and to diversify portfolio procurement strategies including:
- Fixed price – monthly, annually
- Monthly or Daily index
- Financial or Physical Options
Our energy management professionals help businesses by working to determine the optimal hedging strategy given market conditions, reducing exposure to high prices while working to maximize low-price potential.
Flexible Pricing Options
- Fixed Price
Under this option, customers can stabilize a portion or all of their consumption requirements to a fixed rate product, providing price certainty and budgeting strategies, either short or long-term.
- Market (Index) Price
This product caters to businesses wanting to take advantage of low market conditions or those businesses that are uncertain about their future natural gas demands.
- Blended Hedge
We also offer customized procurement strategies by combining market and fixed rate products to achieve an optimal “blend” to meet an organization’s short or long-term objectives.
Natural gas is one of the economic backbones of today’s energy offerings. It can be used for a wide variety of applications. However, the supply and demand of natural gas frequently changes, as do the prices.
That’s in part because the natural gas market is governed by a yearly trend. Colder months see a rise in demand and price, while warmer months see a decline in the market. Other reasons are more difficult to predict, such as natural disasters and other forms of extreme weather and therefore tend to have a more sudden impact on the natural gas market.
Appreciate this article. We don’t hear enough about Canada’s natural gas sector.
Agreed. Oil gets all the attention but natural gas is very important to our energy system.
More posts like this please. thank you for the additional information on flexible pricing options. Our business is looking into this.