The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that last month's start-up of LNG Canada, the country's first large-scale liquefied natural gas export facility, has failed to lift Western Canadian natural gas prices as quickly as some market participants and observers expected because of a persistent supply glut. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says the Shell-led LNG Canada shipped its first cargo of 70,000 metric tonnes from the country's Pacific coast on June 30, to South Korea. The export facility at Kitimat, B.C., is expected to bring 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of new gas demand to Western Canada, and help gas prices recover from an extended period of weakness from oversupply and warmer winters that have reduced home heating demand. That boost to prices has yet to materialize. While prices at the Alberta Energy Company (AECO) storage hub have come off last year's lows of five U.S. cents per million British thermal units, it is still hovering around $1.10 (U.S.). "We're probably a dollar off where we thought in January we'd be," said Chris Carlsen, chief executive officer of gas producer Birchcliff Energy. The market appears to believe it will take longer than previously expected to draw down supply.