Freeze

When there are freeze warnings across much of the South, you’ve got to figure the gas market is going to be at least somewhat bullish. Monday’s market was more than just “somewhat” bullish, posting solid double-digit gains across the board.

CIG declared an OFO Saturday because of the extremely cold weather in its market area, then ended it Sunday. Wellhead freeze-offs in the Rockies limited the amount of supply that CIG could deliver to Xcel Energy’s Public Service Co. of Colorado utility, resulting in rolling power outages of brief duration Saturday (see related story).

Warmer-than-normal weather since the early December freeze across much of the nation has caused wholesale natural gas prices for February to drop 31% from last month’s levels for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The San Francisco-based utility said there has been a “significant drop” in heating demand nationwide, and in California the utility’s more than four million natural gas customers “appear to be conserving above and beyond the dictates of weather.”

Wellhead freeze-offs and other cold-related delivery problems in Canada in January led to a sharp 562 MMcf/d drop in pipeline receipts from December 2003 levels to 15.419 Bcf/d, according to a survey by UBS analysts.

Wellhead freeze-offs and other cold-related delivery problems in Canada in January led to a sharp 562 MMcf/d drop in pipeline receipts from December 2003 levels to 15.419 Bcf/d, according to a survey by UBS analysts.

While it appears the Southeast is likely to come out of its freeze shortly, New England, the Northern Rockies and Plains are expected to remain cold for the foreseeable future, according to Billerica, MA-based WSI Corp.’s latest seasonal outlook, which covers the February to April period.

While it appears the Southeast is likely to come out of its freeze shortly, New England, the Northern Rockies and Plains are expected to remain cold for the foreseeable future, according to Billerica, MA-based WSI Corp.’s latest seasonal outlook, which covers the February to April period.

In response to the big arctic freeze across the Pacific Northwest, Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy reported Tuesday an all-time record natural gas send-out of 716 MMcf last Sunday, and a near-record electricity send-out of 4,540 MW Monday in its territory in western Washington, surrounding the greater Seattle metropolitan area.

With Canada and much of the northern U.S. experiencing deep-freeze low temperatures and a more-of-the-same outlook for Wednesday, the market continued to eke out small, single-digit gains at most points Tuesday.