The gas storage refill season in Alberta appears to have slowed in the past few weeks not only due to lingering cold weather but also spring-summer maintenance and other issues on the Nova Gas Transmission Ltd.(NGTL)system,which kept roughly 0.7 billion cubic feet of gas per day of field receipts from flowing to downstream markets. But that supply tightness doesn't necessarily signal a meaningful price boost for Western Canadian producers who have been selling their gas at deep discounts for years. "Less gas was going to southern Alberta,which means that Alberta storage was open for withdrawals to help balance the Aeco market because of the lack of upstream supplies,”independent Calgary based analyst Martin King told Energy Intelligence.Rather than seeing early-season weekly builds of 3 Bcf to 5 Bcf like last year,weekly May inflows through May 17 were less than half that.There was even a 0.1 Bcf draw for the week ended May 10,according to Enerdata.Nonetheless,the cumulative storage injection for Alberta from Apr.1 through last week was 19.5 Bcf,compared to 11.5 Bcf for the same period last year,which saw a brutally cold April.
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