Tropical

The 2013 Atlantic Hurricane season is deep into its second half and there has yet to be any significant threat to natural gas and oil interests in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). But with the flood of onshore natural gas that has come out of U.S. shale plays in recent years, would a hurricane in the GOM have the same impact on prices and supply as storms have in the past?

The 2013 Atlantic Hurricane season is deep into its second half and there has yet to be any significant threat to natural gas and oil interests in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). But even if a tropical storm were to blow through the GOM, would it have the same impact on prices and supply as storms have in the past?

After more than three months of relative quiet, the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season started to make noise Tuesday with the formation of a pair of tropical storms, though neither is expected to disrupt North American energy interests.

There has been a flurry of tropical storm activity across the Atlantic and the Caribbean this week, but with less than 90 days remaining in the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) remain unscathed, and the season has yet to produce a single hurricane.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) was reporting Friday afternoon that an area of low pressure off the Yucatan Peninsula in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico could threaten Gulf of Mexico (GOM) energy interests. Several companies had reported that they had begun evacuations of nonessential personnel.

Undeterred by the formation of Tropical Storm Erin off the coast of Africa, physical natural gas prices on Thursday for Friday delivery slumped across much of the country, except for much of California, which saw individual points rise from a penny to a nickel.

Natural gas pipeline systems and distribution companies so far have reported no problems maintaining service through Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy.

Much of the eastern United States will experience generally mild temperatures through the end of the year despite an El Nino event in the tropical Pacific Ocean, as cooling waters in the more northern Pacific begin to exert their influence on North American weather patterns, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI). The western third of the country and parts of the Southeast will average cooler than normal over the next three months, WSI said.

Tropical Storm Debby made her presence felt in June monthly production figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) as natural gas production from the federal offshore Gulf of Mexico (GOM) was off 6.8% from May (see NGI, Aug. 6).