BC Government Admits $1.46B Overstatement in Natural Gas Revenue Forecasts
The British Columbia government acknowledged significant errors in its forecasted natural gas revenues, which had overstated projected earnings by $1.46 billion over five fiscal years.
Energy Minister Adrian Dix said that botched currency conversions were the main cause of the discrepancy, which included an incorrect assumption about whether figures were provided in Canadian or U.S. dollars.
The errors involved a 44-cent overstatement in the forecasted per-gigajoule price of natural gas this fiscal year, as well as other mistakes related to the conversion of energy units and data from previous years.
Dix noted that the errors affected the province's forecasting but not its actual revenues, which can fluctuate due to factors such as changes in global market conditions.