Natural gas futures flipped negative through midday trading Tuesday after weather forecasts shaved off some of the Lower 48’s blistering heat expected over the next two weeks.
Here’s the latest:
- August Nymex natural gas futures down 1.9 cents to $2.347/MMBtu as of 2:23 p.m. ET
- Lower 48 gas production down 1.2 Bcf/d day/day to 99.7 Bcf/d, Wood Mackenzie flow data show
After the American and European weather models added cooling degree days (CDD) overnight, the American weather model shed 5 CDDs in a midday update, NatGasWeather said.
Even with the milder reading, forecasts have mid- to late-July on track to be the hottest of the past 50 years, though it is likely the heat would fall short of those forecasts, NatGasWeather said.
Early cycle estimates for gas production Tuesday showed half the day/day output decline was in the East region, down 0.6 Bcf/d day/day from a five-month high of 35.2 Bcf/d. The rest was in the Mountain region.
- Flows to North American LNG terminals up modestly day/day at 11.1 Bcf/d, data from NGI’s U.S. LNG Export Flow Tracker show
Feed gas flows remained minimal for a third day to the Freeport liquefied natural gas terminal in Texas. “We intend to resume operations when it is safe to do so,” a terminal spokesperson said.
EBW Analytics Group analyst Eli Rubin said it could take several days for Freeport LNG to restore operations. The outage at Freeport and industrial facilities along the coast could cut 5-10 Bcf of demand, he estimated.
CenterPoint Energy Inc. said around 1.7 million customers remained without power in the Houston area, down from about 2.3 million during the storm. The company said it expected to have power restored to 1 million customers by Wednesday.
The ports of Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City were set to reopen on Tuesday after officials deemed the channels clear and safe for operations.
At the reopened port in South Texas, Corpus Christi LNG had two vessels at berth with loadings scheduled to start Tuesday, Kpler data show.
- Most physical prices higher, led by gains in California and West Texas, according to NGI’s MidDay Price Alert
- Waha averaging $1.005, up 69.0 cents; SoCal Citygate averaging $2.715, up 77.0 cents
- Henry Hub spot prices averaging $2.395, up 35.0 cents
Enbridge Inc.’s Tres Palacios Gas Storage LLC on Tuesday lifted all restrictions for gas receipts and deliveries at its Matagorda, TX, storage facility that had been put in place for former Hurricane Beryl, the company said in a notice.
Similarly, Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) on Tuesday lifted injection restrictions into storage facilities on its Tejas and Texas pipelines in the state, the company said. KMI halted all injections on Monday and had previously limited Tuesday injections to up to 30% of firm capacity.
KMI restored service at the West Clear Lake storage facility near Houston, but power outages in the area had the Dayton facility still down, a company spokesperson said.
With no limits on withdrawals, KMI’s policy did not significantly affect deliveries on both intrastate pipelines, including to the Corpus Christi LNG terminal, Wood Mackenzie analyst Nadeem Ahmed said.
