CALGARY --  Canadian natural gas producers are being called upon to supply more energy to the United States as a polar vortex decimates one of the largest outlets of the product.

U..S Gulf Coast states or those powered by energy from the region such as Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana are seeing millions of people go without heat and power, as non-winterized oil and gas wells in the region freeze up.

Mexico is also facing a supply shortage, with plants shut down in Texas.

Birchcliff Energy Ltd. based in Calgary, is unhedged in its commodity, so it is currently seeing windfall prices due to sudden demand.

“Natural gas producers for at least the next year, (it) looks very bright for them,” said president and CEO Jeff Tonken.

“As an example, we ran our budget at $2.80USD for NYMEX(New York Mercantile Exchange) gas, and today we are selling it for $16.00USD, so that’s eight days of value in one.”

Natural gas field

Tonken says about 38 per cent of Birchcliff’s oil and gas is exported to the Gulf Coast region.

One industry analyst says companies will bring in significant profit margins, which in turn will help with debt management.

“It’s far easier to pay off your debt when your income is suddenly doubled, or even tripled,” said Ian Archer with IHS Markit.

“And it will put balance sheets in a much stronger position in order to reinvest in the future.”

Andy Mah, CEO of Advantage Oil & Gas, another Calgary-based company says major players prepared for a slight increase in demand late last year, but this sudden resurgence was more than expected.

“We did accelerate four additional wells into the fourth quarter of last year, as well as our drilling program that we geared towards gas anyways,” he said.

 “As we saw it play out, that was the right move and these wells and the other wells are coming on just as we see this increase in prices.”

Archer says that Canadian companies will continue to reap the rewards of the higher prices for some time.

“U.S. production is only about normally 91 BCF (billion cubic feet) a day right now, so it's almost (a) 25 per cent loss in gas production, at a time when there’s heightened gas demand with freezing cold temperatures,” he said.

“The high prices we’re seeing now are obviously response to this really tight short squeeze, those prices will probably back off a little bit.”