Featured Articles
| Tuesday Mar 3, 2020 | |
| Over the past decade, Columbia Pipeline has recreated itself. The pipe was originally designed to take natural gas from the gulf of Mexico back up to Kentucky and West Virginia. But with the blooming production idustry out of the Marcellus Basin the compression on the pipe has been progressively reversed. The pipe now has over 2 BCF of capacity from the Midwest down to the Gulf designed to feed the growing LNG exports. Last month that capacity was cut from 2.1 to 1.5 BCF as a forced outage was initiated. The lost volume was the catalyst for large storage draws out of the South Central caverns. Figure 1 | Columbia Pipeline Back Haul Flows South of Leach The outage lasted from January 24 into this past weekend. Once the derate was lifted the balancing in the Gulf flipped ... » read more | |
| Monday Mar 2, 2020 | |
| It is now March 2020 and the winter season will be coming to an end over the next 28 days. Now some might argue the end was a few months ago as Mother Nature sprinkled warmer than normal dust across the Lower 48 early and often. This has led to a natural gas storage level that is just over 600 BCF higher than last year at this time. If you take into account the fact that the latest 15-day forecast is showing above normal temperatures (below normal HDD accumulation), it might be time to officially move this year's month of March into the summer strip. Figure 1 | Lower 48 HDD Accumulation Forecast The yellow line represents last year's HDD accumulation by day while the blue line is this year's forecast. As you can see, the 1-5 day period is well below that of ... » read more | |
| Friday Feb 28, 2020 | |
| As the new year progresses, it is always interesting to take a year-to-date comparison to last year to see how the prospects for CAISO solar are shaping up this year. There are so many moving parts with more solar being added to the grid, changing hydro conditions, changing natural gas prices, and an evolving energy imbalance market. The table below draws from data published by CAISO where “Potential Solar” equals the metered solar generation plus solar curtailment, “Curtailed Solar” is taken directly from the CAISO reports, “MWh % Curtailed” is simply the curtailed MWh divided by the potential MWh, and the “SP15 GEN-APND” is the SP15 hub price in the CAISO 5-minute market. Table 1 | YTD Jan-Feb Comparison of CAISO Solar Data for 2019 and ... » read more | |
| Thursday Feb 27, 2020 | |
| Every year, there is a time at the beginning of February when 'Phil', the groundhog, is taken out of its little nesting place to figure out its shadow situation. This is known across the country as Groundhog Day where people gather around in Punxsutawney for the annual event. If the groundhog sees its shadow, it is an indication that there will be six weeks left of winter whereas if there is no shadow we are looking at an early spring. Figure 1 | Groundhog Day This year the one big difference at the time of the shadow reveal was the winter weather was almost non-existent up until that point. This led to the natural gas forward curve prompt month moving down below the $2.00 handle with the summer period dropping below that of true production costs in many regions. ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Feb 26, 2020 | |
| Over a couple of decades, you can clearly see how the recycle movement has made an impact in behaviors of humans throughout the world. If you live in the Portland Metro area, we have gone as far as eliminating plactic bags that were common when getting groceries or ordering from a fast food establishment. Within the past 6 months, you now have to ask for a simple straw or plasticware at checkout. In fact, after you ask, the cashier has to pull out a tray/box and place it in front of you as they are not suppose to touch the straw or utensils, some of which are still in the little plastic wrapper (hmmmm). There was a moment in time that Multonomah Country was even making Starbucks move their wood stir-sticks behind the counter to where you had to ask for one to mix ... » read more | |
| Tuesday Feb 25, 2020 | |
| Each month the EIA puts out their Drilling Productivity Report. In the publication they detail current and forecasted production along with a count of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUC) across the Lower 48. These DUC wells are available in the producer inventory for extracting natural gas. Typically they only need a well head and gathering connections in order to push volume into the pipeline stream. Since May of 2019, the Lower 48 DUC count has dropped from 8,568 to 7,658 wells which means the producer community has stopped building inventory and is now working off the well count in order to keep natural gas volumes stable. But if you break down the DUC count by region you can see that there is a bigger story. The Appalachia region, which represents the Marcellus and Utica ... » read more | |
| Monday Feb 24, 2020 | |
| Growing up in the rural parts of the Midwest exposes one to alot of things that culture you in a way that is a little different than if you lived in a metropolitan city your entire life. For example, depending on the day of week, there was always some sort of sporting league that was in play such as Monday night darts, Tuesday night pool, Wednesday saw the early bird bowling league kick in while Thursday night was tied to the local poker night at the City Hall. Friday's were all about the high school sports as the entire town gathered at the field or gym for the local rivalry in football or volleyball. During the winter season, basketball was the main atrraction for the fans. Some adults were active participants in the local club curling team where they would ... » read more | |
| Friday Feb 21, 2020 | |
| FERC got a scoop on March Madness, with its “MOPR Madness”—a four-pack of orders issued yesterday (2/20/2020) that collectively increase the scope of resources subject to minimum offer price floors, or MOPRs. NY’s capacity market is run two times a year, once for each of the upcoming summer and winter capability periods. In each period, capacity is secured and paid a clearing price based on NYISO’s adopted capacity demand curve. NYISO’s capacity market has relatively short forward tenor: an auction for a summer strip is held just a few months in advance, typically in late Q1. NYISO has effectively kept prices at healthy levels, at least for the NY City and Downstate market areas (Figure 1). Figure 1 | NYISO Summer Season Capacity Prices ... » read more | |
| Thursday Feb 20, 2020 | |
| The New England long term forward capacity auction (FCA) results were posted a couple of weeks ago with the current 2022-2023 period continuing what would be considered a downward trend over the past five years. Looking at the table below, you can see this trend clearly as the 2016 2019/2020 settled in at $7.03 per KW-month while the following year slid down to $5.30. The next couple of years were also shifting lower as 2019 ended up clearing $3.80. Once this year rolled around, the anticipation of a lower number was in order, the question was just how low? Table 1 | ISONE Capacity Market Auction Results The last line illustrates a $2.00 per KW-month settle with less total capacity acquired (first data column). We can also see that the FCA auction ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Feb 19, 2020 | |
| Over the past week or so, the Lower 48 has experienced two/three day periods of colder weather wrapped around some above normal temperatures. For example, two weeks ago Denver was basking in 70 degree daytime highs only to be met with 36 inches of snow in the mountains and the airport getting 7 inches. It warmed up quickly over the weekend but not enough to relieve the city of the white stuff that lies on the ground. This past weekend saw some chillier weather with Monday night sitting around the freezing level as I was briefed by the pilot on a connecting flight from Houston to my final Portland destination. Speaking of Houston, Texas saw its swing in temperatures along with their wind profile as the daytime highs were in the low/mid 50's and the overnight lows ... » read more | |
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