The traditional role of gas storage has been to enhance efficiency. "Excess production capacity makes storage less valuable. That excess is gone. Now storage is a big part of the answer," Bill Hederman, director, office of market oversight and investigations, within the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), said at Ziff Energy Group's North American gas storage conference in Houston recently. Today, 85% of all storage field types are depleted reservoirs. "Total capacity of storage has remained relatively unchanged over the past six years-from 8.1- to 8.3 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). That is one of the most surprising things." FERC's staff estimates total practical storage operating capacity to be 7.6 Tcf. Of that, 3.5 Tcf is working gas, while 4.1 trillion is base gas. Storage is being used more intensively. "Historically, the main use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) was to serve needlepoint needs. Large LNG terminals have increased storage capacity. This is a development that matters." Safety continues to be a concern in LNG discussions. Hederman believes the benefits of LNG are not being stressed enough. "The risk is not more than that associated with traditional industrial activities." The Energy Information Administration (EIA) counts 113 active LNG facilities in the U.S., including five marine terminals, storage facilities and operations facilities in niche markets. Most LNG storage facilities continue to operate only to provide peak-day supply. Hederman also commented on gas-storage data. Recent issues surrounding the improper posting of storage data have brought about the potential remedy of required daily postings of storage data by storage owners. "Storage data numbers really matter, probably more than they should," he said. "The bottom line is, those numbers are the only thing that comes out that is authoritative and a reality check. It's just like the old story of the drunk looking under the streetlight for his keys-it's the only place where the light is good enough to see." When this requirement was suggested at a September technical conference, it met with little support. Following the EIA pre-Thanksgiving storage-data problem, in which a clerk working for Dominion Transmission sent a wrong file to the EIA by mistake, the necessity of daily posting became more apparent. "Right now, the market is in the process of sorting out storage needs and value as the supply and demand situations change significantly and relatively quickly," Hederman said. "The commission is not trying to put more burdens on the industry. It's trying to make things more transparent without adding burden." -Taryn Maxwell