U.S. gas in storage still lagging

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Hurricane Claudette is being blamed for the lowest weekly injection of natural gas in storage since early May, with only 83 billion cubic feet added to the working gas total in the week ending July 18, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

The nationwide total now stands at 1.949 trillion cubic feet, the only time in the last five years that the stocks have been below 2 tcf by mid-July. The comparative totals were 2.486 tcf a year ago, 2.152 tcf in 2001, 1.921 tcf during the summer 2000 energy crisis, 2.308 tcf in 1999 and 2.306 tcf in 1998. EIA said totals as of July 18 were 1.097 tcf in the east region vs. 1.345 tcf a year earlier; 300 bcf in the west vs. 342 bcf; and 552 bcf in the producing region vs. 799 bcf. However, the deficit from the five year average of 2.235 tcf eased to 286 bcf from 300 bcf the previous week.