The US is on the cusp of explosive natural gas demand, particularly in export markets, while the marketplace still views natural gas as a by-product of shale oil production.  Is the market right, expecting US shale oil growth to provide sufficient supplies of natural gas to meet any demand scenario, or is the market wrong and overly optimistic about oil prices and US oil supply growth?  If the market is right… no worries!  But if the market is wrong, how will the US meet surging natural gas demand?

The elections of the past two years placed North America more firmly into an era where politics has become more important than policy, rhetoric than reality, and personality than government experience. How this has played out in Canada with the elections in Alberta, Federally, and most recently, British Columbia as well as in the United States tells us a lot about the stability of government institutions. In the case of the United States, the durability of the systems put into place by the founding fathers almost 250 years ago have acted as a foil to attempts to deregulate key industries. We now must balance the “twitterization” of policy with the reality of regulators, courts, and legislators. Industry has to manage rhetoric without becoming blinded to the real risks to business.  How will North America emerge from the Trudeau-Trump era? Will businesses and economies grow due to reduced regulatory burdens or have legislative mandates behind those regulations created a web from which it is near impossible to escape? How to manage an industry with a complex global supply chain in an era of uncertainty? Not to mention the unknown unknowns. Both Canada and the United States are experiencing leadership with a preference towards disruption, and in that way this era is unlike any other in North American history. Putting it into the context of historical institutions, looking for the policy inside the politics, is the goal of this discussion.

Our gas buyer panelists will give you solid and valuable insight into what is currently working, what they have learned from volatility and what they will do differently next time. Topics of discussion to include:
1. Given the low-price environment, what contracting and hedging strategies are you implementing (e.g. long term vs. short term)?
2. How have increasing gas supplies from shale affected your gas purchasing and contracting practices? Are new shale-related transportation options living up to your expectations?
3. With renewables increasing their share of power generation, how does this affect your business?
4. Will LNG exports increase from North America, and how will this affect your purchasing strategies?
5. How does cancellation of Energy East, and the shift of the NEB project approval criteria affect your business?     
6. Have you changed your storage strategies given the low-price environment and supply availability? What are your storage plans for 2018 and 2019?
7. How predictable is your gas consumption?
8. How are you dealing with Cap and Trade? Will the costs flow through to the customer or be absorbed?
9. What factors, other than price, influence your decision to choose one supplier over another?