Natural gas supplies in the Pacific Northwest are adequate, but producers nevertheless are straining to keep up with a growing demand in a region attempting to balance its historic dependence on hydroelectric and coal-fired power generation, a collaborative study by the Northwest Gas Association (NWGA) concluded Tuesday. The regional situation is mirrored nationally, sending wholesale gas prices ever higher, the study concluded.

“The Northwest Gas Outlook,” with input from the three-state area’s eight principal distribution and interstate transmission companies, looked at demand, supply, capacity and prices, stressing several near- and long-term implications, including the fact that a healthy, reliable natural gas infrastructure is “also vital” to the Northwest (along with the historically strong hydroelectric system) and “plenty of gas exists.”

Bringing in significant new supplies of gas from Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta or via liquefied natural gas (LNG) has become problematic, however, according to the NWGA study. It called the potential piping of supplies from Alaska and Canada a “capital-intensive, multi-billion-dollar investment,” and the prospect for LNG imports as “expensive and controversial in some locations.”

“In Alaska, more than 4 Bcf/d is currently being produced as a byproduct of oil production and then re-injected into the ground because no means exist for shipping it to market. This is more than twice the average daily demand for natural gas in the entire Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon and Washington state).”

Highlights of the four areas of the study are:

Copies of gas outlook in the Pacific Northwest are available on the Northwest Gas Association’s web site (www.nwga.org/pressroom.php). The association includes: Avista Corp.; Cascade Natural Gas Corp.; Duke Energy Gas Transmission; Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN); Intermountain Gas Co.; Northwest Natural Gas Co.; Puget Sound Energy; and Williams Northwest Pipeline.

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