INDUSTRY-NUMBING NATURAL GAS PRICES

Faced with a poor outlook for natural gas prices, three producers have slashed their 2018 budgets by a combined $660 million, while a fourth warns that prices sustained at current levels would “paralyze” development in western Canada.

Bonavista Energy Corp., said that natural gas prices at the AECO pricing hub in southern Alberta averaged just $1.38 per gigajoule during the third quarter.

“These industry-numbing prices, frequently fetching no bid on the day, were amongst the most volatile movements in pricing we have witnessed in our 20 years in the business,” the company said in the statement earlier this month.