In March, the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report—”Natural Gas Storage in the United States in 2001: A Current Assessment and Near-Term Outlook”—that examined the large decline of underground natural gas storage inventories during the 2000-2001 heating season and the concern that the nation might run out of working gas in storage prior to the close of the heating season on March 31, 2001. According to the report, even though gas inventories “are likely to approach record lows” at the end of this month and remain at low levels for the following several months, storage stocks are expected to be adequate to meet demand.
The report examined both “working” gas inventories—the inventories of natural gas that would normally be delivered to the customer—and “base” gas inventories—the extra gas that must be retained in the system to maintain pressure. It said that there is “little likelihood that working gas levels for the regions will be completely drawn down,” although some operators might be forced to “dip into base gas inventories to maintain operations.”
The full report is available in PDF format on the EIA Natural Gas Web site.
