POLL-U.S. natural gas storage set to reach new record, barely 20/07/2015 13:00 - RSF
By Scott DiSavino
July 20 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas stockpiles are on track to rise to a record high this November, just barely eclipsing their previous peak three years ago even as domestic demand surges, according to a Reuters poll. Underground storage is likely to peak at around 4.0 trillion cubic feet at the end of the injection season in early November, according to the Reuters poll, breaking the current all-time high of 3.9 tcf set in 2012. Graphic:
Annual consumption of natural gas has risen about 15 percent in the past five years, yet companies and traders are not stockpiling significantly more gas ahead of the winter, when demand for home heating typicallyexceeds supply and volatile weather conditions necessitate an extra buffer.
The disconnect reflects the changing nature of U.S. gas use, analysts say. Much of the new demand is coming from power generators, who rarely rent underground storagecaverns because they prefer more flexible supplies, rather than utilities that rely on gas to keep homes and businesses warm.
Some analysts warn that as their inventories fail to keep pace with growing demand, power plants that rely on immediate production and last-minute pipeline purchases may find themselves caught out in the cold, as they did during the scramble for gas during the Polar Vortex a year and a half ago.
"Power generators are burning a lot more gas but they are not leasingadequate storage to meet their needs," said Teri Viswanath, director of commodity strategy for natural gas at BNP Paribas.
Analysts forecast prices at the Henry Hub in 2015 would average $2.96 per million British thermal units, the lowest sincethe $2.77 average in 2012, before rising to $3.52 in 2016 and $3.95 in 2017.
That was well below analysts' estimates six months ago when they expected prices to average $3.92 in 2015 and $4.34 in 2016. (
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POWER UP,RESIDENTIAL STEADY
The power sector so far this year was using about 20 percent more gas compared with the same period last year due to the fuel's relatively low cost compared with coal and the retirement of scores of coal units for environmentaland economic reasons. The amount of natural gas used to generate power in the U.S. was on track to reach the highest on record this year. (
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Residential, commercial and industrial sectors are thus far using near-normal amounts of the fuel.
Although storage injections so far this year were running over last year's record pace, analysts said they did not fear a price rout in 2015.
"Signs of slowing production growth, along with strong power burns, are likely to meanstorage builds will start to slow relative to last year's levels," Michael Cohen, Head of Energy Markets Research at Barclays, said in a note.
The maximum capacity of the 395 storage facilities in the lower 48 states is about 4.3 tcf, according to federal energy data.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Barani Krishnan in New York; Editing by Chris Reese)
((For Thomson Reuters Analytics natural gas data, see: reuters://screen/verb=Open/URL=cpurl://pointcarbon.cp./trading/gmtna/ TABLE - U.S. Henry Hub natural gas price estimates (
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Keywords: ENERGY NATGAS/STORAGE