US sees largest amount of stored natural gas since 2020

The Lower 48 states will enter the winter heating season, which runs from 1 November – 30 March, with the most natural gas in storage since 2020. In addition, the US has 5% more natural gas in inventories entering the winter heating season than the previous five-year (2018 – 22) average, and 7% more than on 31 October 2022.

The large volume of gas in storage is partially the result of a mild 2022 – 23 heating season. Working natural gas inventories totalled 1.823 billion ft³ on 1 April 2023, or 19% more than the average US 1 April total for the previous five years. Relatively full inventories at the start of the summer injection season meant that storage operators could reach end-of-season targets with smaller natural gas injections. Net additions to working US natural gas inventories totalled 1.953 billion ft³ during the injection season, about 5% less than the five-year average and 9% less than in 2022.

US natural gas inventories climbed quickly in the spring and early summer. During that time, net injections of natural gas into storage exceeded the five-year average as the storage surplus grew from 298 billion ft³ on 31 March and peaked at 370 billion ft³ during the week ending 11 June. For the following 11 consecutive weeks, net injections were below the five-year average, reaching a low of 163 billion ft³ during the week ending 6 October.

Although the end of the US natural gas storage injection season has been traditionally defined as 31 October, net injections often occur in November. Working natural gas storage peaked at 3.836 billion ft³ in 2023, during the week ending 24 November — 303 billion ft³ above the five-year average.

Read the article online at: https://www.tanksterminals.com/terminals/07122023/us-begins-winter-with-the-highest-amount-of-natural-gas-since-2020/