Natural Gas News – April 16, 2018

Natural Gas News – April 16, 2018

Colder than Normal Temperatures Lead to Lowest Natural Gas Stocks Since 2014

Daily Energy Insider reported: The stored supply of natural gas in the United States has reached its lowest levels since 2014, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. The state of the storage lies at 1,351 billion cubic feet (Bcf) stored as of March 31, 2018. The reason for this is colder than normal temperatures in the 2017-2018 heating season, leading to a massive amount of use of the natural gas stocks. This reached its peak in January, when a weekly all-time record was set, through the withdrawal of 359 Bcf. Overall, net withdrawals reported for the season reached 2,247 Bcf. The EIA also predicts that injections into storage for the summer season will be higher than normal, though to reach regulatory obligations for providing winter heating services, storage operators would have to pump in around 30 percent more natural gas than the average of the previous five injection seasons. By the end of October, the EIA expects working gas levels to reach 3,767 Bcf. To reach that figure will require the equivalent of 11.3 Bcf per day.

Methane Leaks are Burning Oil and Natural Gas Producers — But They are Not Sitting Still

The Italian oil and gas company ENI has set out to cut its fugitive emissions from production by 80% by 2025, relative to a 2014 baseline. It was nearly halfway there in 2016, meaning it should hit its mark six years ahead of schedule. The largest such escaping emission is methane, which is 72 times more powerful than CO2 when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. And oil developers are getting dead serious about limiting their methane releases because they are also in the natural gas business, which is now the hottest fuel in the United States and which has overtaken coal.