Thursday, January 21, 2010

Natural Gas Glut Over

It would appear that the "Natural Gas Glut" you have heard tell about in P.R. planted stories in the Mainstream Media (MSM) is over.

U.S. inventories of Nat Gas are less than 1% above last year at this time, and .2% below the 5 year average - (just look at the slope of the graph) that's what happens when you have 2 weeks of record cold combined with the inventory system the U.S. now employs (woefully inadequate). This, during a period of NO DEMAND from the industrial sector due to the economy... If we had a new 2 week record cold snap we would be in deep, deep doo-doo (that's a technical term used by analysts to connote a difficult operating environment). So much for the glut...




Should make for an interesting "shoulder period".


12 comments:

bureaucrat said...

I'm probably disordered by the artificially high gas prices in 2005-8, but even with the cold weather in Chicago this winter (and everywhere else), my natural gas bill for my 4,800 sq ft 3-unit building has been rather pleasant (so far under $500 a month). Gas is still cheap, or maybe we've just gotten used to the "new higher pricing." I remember $1 per therm 10 years ago. *aaahhhhh* :)

bureaucrat said...

Pardon me .. 25 CENTS a therm (1 therm = 100,000 BTUs) in 1999. :) Today it is around 53 cents in Chicago. Went as high as $1.46 a therm in 2008 (during the phony bubble wars).

tweell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tweell said...

Pickens is interested in his wallet first, last and always. Not a bad thing necessarily, but whenever he claims another reason for whatever he's lobbying for, it's pure BS. He stands to make out like a bandit if natural gas prices go up, so he's trying to increase demand.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Tweel:

No question about it, and rightly so.

Just pointing it out...

Anonymous said...

I've been doing a bit of research on uses for diesel fuel. Fuel oil consumption has been dropping like a rock since 2003 for residential and commercial applications. Over the road is down a bit, and rail use has been clobbered. Odd since railroads are the most fuel efficient. They should stand to win in a high fuel cost environment. Anyway, most of the fixed use has probably gone to NG. T. Boone and MS are going to make a killing

Regards,

Coal Guy

Anonymous said...

Yep, Nat gas storage is inadequate. Petroleum storage is inadequate. The electric grid is 50 years outdated. The nuclear energy business has been killed. There is inadequate LNG import capacity (located safely 10 miles offshore!). We have depleted our grain inventories. Our roads and bridges are unsafe. The seawalls and levies are inadequate. In addition to the lost industry, we have lost the trade secrets to start back up in many areas.

Still, there there is plenty of money to support those who do (will) not work and to fund wars. Hell, our government is figuring out how to spend even more. We'll be Venezuela in no time. It won't be one disaster it will be a series. We are exposed on every side.

Regards,

Coal Guy

bureaucrat said...

As long as the supermarkets and gas stations stay open, everything is groooooooooovy. :) No rioting, no muss, no fuss.

Anonymous said...

Much of what goes on in the world, especially in nature driven by random processes. Play too close to the edge for too long and you get clobbered. The problem with random processes is that you never know when

Regards,

Coal Guy

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Bur:

Please make sure that your comments have some cognitive value, and are not merely designed to be argumentative.

PLEASE

Anonymous said...

Here's the source of my fuel oil consumption data:

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_821dst_dcu_nus_a.htm

Quite interesting.

Regards,

Coal Guy

bureaucrat said...

My first two comments were related directly to your original post. My comments for the "end of the worlders" later on, I didn't initiate. :)