On January 24th the prompt (Feb20) NYMEX natural gas futures contract settled at $1.893/MMBtu which was the lowest January closing price for the near-month contract since January 1999 and also the lowest near-month settle since March 2016. After the second warmest January since 2000, working gas in underground storage surged to a 199 Bcf surplus…
According to data from the Midwestern Regional Climate Center, most regions east of the Rockies have seen above-average temperatures so far this winter. A ridge of high pressure has dominated weather patterns since early December bringing with it all these unseasonably “warm” temperatures. For the Midwest, they state that Cleveland, Ohio has experienced their second-warmest…
Natural gas production climbed to a new all-time high in 2019 driven by growth in the Permian, Appalachian, and Haynesville shale basins. New takeaway capacity in each of these regions also allowed more molecules to get to market quicker which helped offset the growth in exports and electric power consumption. The low cost of natural…
NOAA’s Three-Month Outlook that was released on November 21st for the period December 2019 through February 2020 maintains a warm lean with both coasts and the South expected to see above-average temperatures while the Midwest and northern Plains the only regions expected to get seasonal averages. No region in the Lower 48 is expected to…
As of September 2019, cumulative US-installed onshore wind capacity exceeded 100 gigawatts (GW) according to the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator report. Over half of that amount has been installed since the start of 2012. Only nine states in the entire country do not have at least one installed wind turbine.…
EIA reported that working gas in storage for the Lower 48 states increased by 2.569 Tcf this refill season which usually runs from April 1st to October 31st. Storage ended last heating season at 1.155 Tcf which was the second-lowest level since 2004. Fortunately, mild conditions and a production surge rebalanced this market quickly with…
After a 106-week run of lower-than-normal natural gas inventories, the deficit to the five-year average has finally flipped to a surplus in the week ending October 11th, 2019. In late November 2018, the deficit had peaked at 725 Bcf and a combination of mild weather and record production has somehow put this market back at…
In the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest seasonal outlook for the period November 2019 through January 2020 they call for a high probability of above-average temperatures for all of the Lower 48 states and an even higher probability for Alaska. NOAA also calls for the Rockies and South Central parts of the country…
On September 26th the EIA stated in their Natural Gas Weekly Update that flows out of the Northeast have averaged more than 16 billion cubic feet per day during September! This is 1 – 2 Bcf/d higher than the previous month and shows how the economics for transporting volumes have shifted. For the Midwest, flows…
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) stated that hourly electricity demand in the Lower 48 peaked at 704 gigawatts (GW) on Friday, July 19th for the hour ending at 6:00 pm EST. Demand has not been that high since July 2017 and really shows the impact of all the coal-to-gas switching for power generation. The…