Saskatchewan was relatively late to tap into natural gas as a source of energy for heating and cooking, as most commercial exploration was focused on oil. However, three towns—Lloydminster, Kamsack, and Unity—saw the wisdom of tapping into local stores of natural gas, and installed municipal natural gas systems during the 1930s and ‘40s.
In 1951, the provincial government established SaskEnergy in 1951, designating it as Saskatchewan’s distributor and supplier of natural gas. Today, SaskEnergy is the regulated supplier of natural gas in the province. While retailers now have the ability to sell natural gas supplies to homeowners and businesses, SaskEnergy is still the sole natural gas distributor in Saskatchewan. This means that all natural gas is provided directly to consumers by SaskEnergy, and the utility handles all billing as well.
Today, SaskEnergy serves more than 300,000 customers, with a distribution system measuring more than 63,000 kilometers in total.
