Stalking a gas rebound

Article Excerpt

Shares of many natural-gas-weighted producers are down sharply from last year’s highs. That’s mostly due to record low gas prices. Shale gas discoveries continue to increase supply at a time of slowing demand in a weak global economy. Shale gas is trapped in rock formations. To extract it, water and chemicals are pumped into the rock. This fractures the rock and releases the natural gas. Gas production is also growing as a by-product of drilling for higherprofit crude oil and natural gas liquids, such as propane and butane. However, the long-term outlook for gas is positive—and one big reason is the prospect of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to countries like Japan, China and South Korea, where gas sells for more than double North American prices. Gas-weighted stocks like ARC Resources and Enerplus (see page 54) rose recently after Petronas, the Malaysian state oil company, made a takeover offer for Progress Energy (Toronto symbol PRQ) at a 77% premium to its then trading price. Petronas…