Burn

Driven by competitive economics relative to coal and by warmer-than-normal temperatures, the amount of electricity generated using natural gas reached a record high during July, surpassing a record set in July 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Record-high natural gas power burn was the driving factor behind last week’s unusual 6 Bcf summer storage withdrawal, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Consumption of natural gas for power generation since the beginning of the year has averaged 26 Bcf/d, 24% more than the five-year average and 3% more than the five-year maximum, despite electricity-weighted heating degree days that were close-to-average nationally, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

November natural gas is set to open flat Thursday morning at $2.40 as prices consolidate ahead of government inventory figures and early snow is in the forecast for higher elevations in the West. Overnight oil markets gained.

Seventeen environmental groups Wednesday filed a petition with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to include the oil and gas extraction industry, particularly hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations, in its Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements.

As several natural gas advocacy organizations urge the federal government to extend proposed economic incentives for electric vehicles (EV) to natural gas vehicles (NGV) and other alternative fuel transportation, one gas supporter believes the incentive disparity exists because the shale gas revolution came three years too late.

Transwestern issued a systemwide Alert Day notice due to low linepack for Monday, prompting Southwest Gas to follow up with a Hold Burn to Scheduled Quantities notice. Both actions were canceled Tuesday as a result of Transwestern linepack returning to normal.

Southwest Gas issued a Hold Burn to Scheduled Quantities notice, effective Monday, due to a low-linepack Alert Day that was declared by upstream pipeline Transwestern that afternoon (see Daily GPI, Dec. 6a). Southwest said it did not plan on flowing any gas from Transwestern for Monday’s gas day and therefore did not declare an OFO, but would issue an OFO “should this situation change.”

Natural gas producers can thank the hot summer for helping to burn up a large portion of the country’s growing gas production during the third quarter, according to the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook, released last Wednesday.