Plenty

Although cold temperatures were easing off a bit in some of the southernmost states, there was still plenty of weather-related demand elsewhere to keep prices on the rise at most points Wednesday. The Northeast, with Transco Zone 6-New York City peaking at $20, continued to lead the general price parade higher, with most non-Northeast points ranging from about a nickel to 60 cents higher.

With more than 67 Bcf of proposed working storage capacity, Louisiana tops the list of states and provinces in North America with the most proposed storage, followed closely by Texas with 65.3 Bcf, Alabama with 62.5 Bcf and Mississippi with 55.6 Bcf, according to a new gas storage and liquefied natural gas (LNG) database and map produced by Intelligence Press Inc. Despite the big numbers, however, storage developers say it isn’t exactly a boom time for the storage sector.

With more than 67 Bcf of working capacity proposed, Louisiana tops the list of states and provinces in North America with the most proposed gas storage, followed closely by Texas with 65.3 Bcf, Alabama with 62.5 Bcf and Mississippi with 55.6 Bcf of proposed working gas storage capacity, according to a new gas storage and LNG database and map produced by Intelligence Press, Inc. Despite the big numbers, however, storage developers say it isn’t exactly a boom time for the storage sector.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental news and plenty of uncertainty ahead of Thursday’s storage report, natural gas futures traders played it close to their vests Tuesday. The July contract had a hard time mustering either a rally or a decline as it managed only an 11-cent trading range. It closed at $5.712, up 0.6 cents for the session. At just 62,296 contracts, estimated volume was light for the second day in a row.

There’s plenty of capital available for investment in the transmission sector, but that money isn’t flowing more freely because of a lack of certainty that continues to permeate much of the power industry, a Senate hearing looking at the financial condition of the electric market was told last Tuesday.

With all signs pointing to a continued population boom and steady economic growth over the next several years, key parts of the Southeast will see a dramatic upturn in the amount of power they will require over the next decade, an executive with a leading economic forecasting firm said last Thursday. One region alone, the South Atlantic, is going to need to be supplied with 30% more power over the next 10 years than was supplied in 2000, Mary Novak, managing director-energy consulting with DRI-WEFA, said at a conference looking at the Southeast’s energy infrastructure.

Natural gas storage a-plenty appears to be headed toward Mississippi in the form of two salt dome cavern projects, both of which are scheduled to come on-line in late 2003. The separate projects sponsored by Bedminster, NJ-based NUI Corp. and Houston-based SGR Holdings LLC, expect to bring a combined 26 Bcf of gas storage to the region.

While the world has “plenty” of energy reserves to meet its needs over the next two decades, supply is not guaranteed, and “massive” investments will be required in both infrastructure and technology to solve the problem, according to a study by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The French organization released its “World Energy Outlook 2001 Insights: Assessing Today’s Supplies to Fuel Tomorrow’s Growth,” which offers conclusions by 15 analysts from around the world.

With plenty of new gas-fired generation firing up this summer, Houston-based Purvin & Gertz, an international energy consulting firm, is expecting prices to firm up, particularly in the U.S. Gulf Coast region with the average bidweek delivered-to-pipeline prices predicted to average $4.80/MMBtu in August, dropping in September and then peaking at $6/MMBtu in December.