Friday, November 20, 2020

EIA Natural Gas Weekly Update

 From the Energy Information Administration:

In the News:

Lower 48 states working natural gas in underground storage inventories at the end of the refill season (April 1–October 31)

Working natural gas in storage in the Lower 48 states as of October 31 totaled 3,920 billion cubic feet (Bcf), according to interpolated data from EIA’s Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report released November 13. This is the third-highest end-of-refill-season level ever recorded and the highest since 2016, when working natural gas stocks reached 3,977 Bcf. Total inventory as of October 31 was 201 Bcf (5%) higher than the five-year (2014–18) end-of-October average and 194 Bcf (5%) higher than last year at this time.

EIA estimates that net injections totaled 1,914 Bcf during the 2020 refill season (April 1–October 31). Net injections were 94 Bcf (6%) less than the five-year average and 657 Bcf (26%) less than the near-record net injections reported for the 2019 refill season. Working natural gas stocks entered the refill season at 2,006 Bcf this year, following a relatively mild heating season contributing to the smallest net withdrawals since 2016. Because the refill season started above 2,000 Bcf for the third time since 2016, smaller net injections were necessary to reach end-of-refill-season inventory targets.

Declines in natural gas production account for most of the reduction in net injections during the 2020 refill season. Dry natural gas production averaged 88.5 Bcf/day during the 2020 refill season compared with 92.4 Bcf/day during the 2019 refill season, according to IHS Markit. Natural gas consumption during the 2020 refill season was roughly comparable with consumption during the 2019 refill season, with increases in residential and commercial consumption, LNG feedstock, and pipeline exports, slightly exceeding decreases in natural gas consumed for electricity generation, according to IHS Markit.

Although the end of the natural gas storage injection season is traditionally defined as October 31, injections often occur in November. The highest working natural gas level ever recorded occurred during the week ending November 11, 2016, when working natural gas levels totaled 4,047 Bcf....

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.... U.S. LNG exports are flat week over week. Eighteen LNG vessels (seven from Sabine Pass, four from Cameron, three each from Corpus Christi and Freeport, and one from Cove Point) with a combined LNG-carrying capacity of 64 Bcf departed the United States between November 12 and November 18, 2020, according to shipping data provided by Bloomberg Finance, L.P. Two more tankers were loading on Wednesday, November 18—one at Freeport LNG terminal and one at Corpus Christi LNG.....

....MUCH MORE

And from the "a picture is worth a thousand words" file, look at that temperature anomaly: cool where they don't use natural gas, warm where they do:

 https://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/weekly/img/20201112.7day.mean.F.gif