Giving It the Gas

A vast new source of natural gas for U.S. homes and industry was unlocked last week. Satisfied that Canada is endowed with gas reserves well beyond its own needs for at least the next quarter-century, Ottawa approved gas exports to the U.S. of 7.3 trillion cubic feet, an amount that could fuel New York City at present rates for 80 years. The Alberta oil and gas industry, with $200 million tied up in 1,000 capped gas wells, let out a jubilant whoop. Well it might: Canada's new National Energy Board estimated that exports under the four approved licenses will earn $75.5 million a year in U.S. sales by 1963, enough for a significant dent in Canada's chronic trade deficit with the U.S.

Of the four export proposals cleared by Ottawa, only one has been fully approved by two other regulatory agencies, the U.S. Federal Power Commission and Alberta's Oil and Gas Conservation Board.

That is Trans-Canada Pipe Lines Ltd.'s plan to pipe 204 million cubic feet daily to the U.S.'s Midwestern Gas Transmission Co. (TIME, April 4). The biggest project is Alberta & Southern Gas Co.

Ltd.'s plan to lay down a 1,400-mile pipeline to carry 458.7 million cubic feet daily to its California parent, the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Under the two other licenses, Canadian gas would flow to markets in Montana and the Northwest.

The Canadian Petroleum Association predicted that the new markets would spur a $6.8 billion oil and gas development in Alberta, British Columbia and the untapped Canadian North in the next decade. The Energy Board estimated that consumption, in Canada and by export, will have totaled 45.6 trillion cubic feet by 1990--when Canada will still have at least that much left in the ground.

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