The industry will have to wait another week to see the storageimpact from Hurricane Georges, but judging from AGA’s reportyesterday, Hermine, following on Frances and Earl, did her share inpartly holding back the strong tide of injections. AGA reported ameasly 41 Bcf rise for the week ending Sept. 25, which shaved alarge 46 Bcf chunk off the storage surplus compared to last year.

During the same week in 1997, the industry injected more thantwice that amount (87 Bcf) and the average over the past four yearsis 72 Bcf for that week. Injections clearly were on the small sideof market expectations, which ranged from 40 to 70 Bcf Wednesdayand Tuesday. Georges undoubtedly will further reduce storageinjections this week, but the industry already has plenty of gas inthe ground, 314 Bcf more than at the same time last year.

“Winter could start right now and we’d be okay,” said one GulfCoast marketer, who minimized the impact of five weeks of tropicalactivity and production curtailments in the Gulf. Currently thereis 56 Bcf more gas in storage than was present at the end of theinjection season last November. AGA reported 2,870 Bcf of workinggas is stored, compared with a full level of 2,814 Bcf at the endof the first week in November 1997.

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