Canada Analyst predicts oil and gas prices to soar

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Copyright ) 2000 CBC All Rights Reserved Analyst predicts oil and gas prices to soar WebPosted Fri May 19 09:27:48 2000 ET CALGARY - It's going to cost Canadians a lot more money to heat their homes next winter - possibly twice as much as last year. That's because the price of natural gas is expected to soar.

That's good news for the energy industry, but bad for consumers.

The cost of home heating could double last winter's rates, according to Peter Linder. He's an oil and gas analyst in Calgary. "For a consumer I'm looking at at least a 50 per cent increase in heating costs next winter over last winter. Possibly even a 75 per cent increase in costs. If you get a cold winter it could even be a 100 per cent increase in the heating costs," he told CBC News.

The reasons, says Linder, are a tight gas supply in North America coupled with strong demand. That means energy investors, along with industry and government stand to benefit from high revenues.

But consumer advocate Jim Wachowich says governments should pass along some of their windfall to consumers.

"They could consider some form of royalty rebate to help people who are going to be facing higher home heating bills in the future," said Wachowich.

For now, there won't be a break. In fact, Linder predicts we should get used to higher heating costs for the next couple of winters.

http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/NWview.cgi?/news/2000/05/19/gas000519

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 19, 2000


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