Petroleum fuels prosperity in Canada's oil and gas capital

Skyrocketing oil prices have shaken economies throughout the world, but it is sweet music in Calgary, the oil and gas capital of Canada.

Elsewhere in the country developers are slowing down to let the market catch up to the heady pace of construction in the past decade, but in Calgary it is still boom time.

The evidence of happy times is that EnCana, the largest producer of natural gas in North America and the third-largest company in Canada, is building a 2 million sqft complex in the heart of downtown Calgary.

The US$455 million complex will have twin towers, one of them more than 60 storeys high, making it the tallest building in western Canada and the largest built in the country in two decades.

The new development is a product of Calgary's stunning petroleum prosperity. EnCana's 3,200 employees are now scattered among five different sites around the city and the office vacancy rate next year is forecast to be a record low of 1.7 per cent.

Because of the squeeze on available office space, several developers are confident enough to proceed with construction of new office towers with few if any leasing commitments.

The prosperity has had obvious ripple effects elsewhere in the province of Alberta, but Calgary as the engine of oil and gas development has been leading the way.