Western Canada shippers of natural gas given boost

Calgary, Alberta

SHIPPERS have taken up Transcanada Corp's sweetened offer to move natural gas on its Mainline pipeline, the company said on Monday, granting Canada's remote western plays a boost against more easily accessible American counterparts.

Western Canadian shippers have been increasingly squeezed out of the Ontario natural gas market by eastern US shale basins like the Marcellus and Utica. They have comparable production costs to Canada's remote Montney and Duvernay gas plays, but lower delivery costs.