Friday, January 30, 2015

EIA Natural Gas Supply/Demand Report: Rise in Power Burn Offset By Flat Out Production

Repeating, for new readers, our natural gas thesis for this heating season:
Average temperatures swamped by record supply. We're going lower.
Most active March futures  $2.676  -0.043 last.
The market is in backwardation with March 2016's at 3.233.
20.8% for one year if you have the storage.

From the Energy Information Administration:
Led by growth in Texas, the Southeast, and Northeast, power burn is headed for a January record

Regional natural gas consumption for electric power generation, January 1-28, 2010-15Natural gas consumed in electric generation (power burn) has generally increased over the past 10 years, and power burn during the first 28 days of January is at record levels this year, according to data from Bentek Energy. So far in January 2015, power burn is more than 6% greater than the same period in 2014, and 16% higher than the five-year (2010-14) average for this period.

Regional growth for power burn is strongest in Texas, which increased its power burn so far this January by 17.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf), an 18% increase over 2014. Strong power burn growth this January also occurred in the Northeast and Southeast, which had power burn increases of 10% (12.5 Bcf) and 7% (13.5 Bcf), respectively. These three regions are among the largest users of natural gas for power generation in the country.

Contributing to this growth is an increasing share of natural gas-fired capacity and relatively low natural gas prices. From January through November 2014, 66 power plant units, with a total net summer capacity of 3,787 megawatts (MW), were retired in 19 states. The primary generation fuels for these plants were coal and petroleum liquids. More than half of the generating capacity retired during this period came from the Southeast and Northeast. In the Southeast, this included the 200-MW W. S. Lee power plant in South Carolina and the 444-MW Widows Creek facility in Alabama, both coal-fired. And in the Northeast, the Salem Harbor 744-MW coal-and-oil-fired facility in Massachusetts was retired. Additionally, in December, the 604-MW Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was closed.

More than 300 utility-scale generating units, with a net summer capacity of 9,656 MW, were brought online in January-November 2014, with 46 being natural gas-fired units representing 48% (4,624 MW) of the total added capacity....MUCH MORE
And from FinViz a graphic depiction of supply/demand: