Gas portfolio closure won’t affect city’s local supply

By Medicine Hat News on September 12, 2019.

The closure of most of the City of Medicine Hat’s shallow gas portfolio won’t affect local gas supply, administrators are stressing.

For decades, politicians have fielded questions about the size of the municipal gas reserves and local use, a comparison that produces a timeline for when the city will theoretically run out.

However, only a small portion of gas burned locally to heat homes and businesses or used to produce petrochemicals can be traced back to city wells.

The municipal gas distribution company brings gas into the city from a major pipeline system for local use while production from city-owned wells goes into the system near their locations across southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

It’s not economic or even logistically possible to deliver “City of Medicine Hat Gas” for use in Medicine Hat, so swaps occur.

A release from the city on Wednesday states that under the separate utility distribution company “steps are being taken to ensure a continued flow of supply for decades to come.”

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