The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) said that the lack of interconnections with other regions limited Texas’ ability to import power from other regions if problems arise.
Equitrans has estimated the size of the leak, which started on Nov. 6 at the facility in Cambria County’s Jackson Township, at about 100 MMcf/d, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
If approved by Congress, the request, issued by the White House on Nov. 14, provides the Department of Energy (DOE) with funding to improve the four SPR sites along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
“The drawdown in crude supplies is substantial. The crude supply is still very tight, heating oil supply is still below average,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
Federal regulators also warned that the New England region faced its highest energy costs in more than 25 years this winter due to tight heating oil supplies and fierce competition for LNG.
The U.S. president announced a plan last month to begin refilling the stockpile when U.S. crude is around $70/bbl, a level he said would allow drillers to profit while being a good deal for taxpayers. The U.S. benchmark was around $89 on Nov. 3.
In what has already been an extremely volatile week, front-month gas futures fell 29.4 cents, or 4.7%, to $5.974/MMBtu at 10:35 a.m. EDT (1435 GMT). That follows a rise of 12% on Oct. 31, a drop of 10% on Nov. 1 and a rise of 10% on Nov. 2.
Analysts remain concerned that the ongoing draw on crude oil is still due to releases from strategic stockpiles—and that inventories of distillate products are not building enough either.
With an agreement to transport and sequester CO₂ from a massive clean ammonia project in Louisiana, Denbury surpasses its CO₂ transportation deal target goal for 2022.
U.S. natural gas prices have plunged about 58% during the past nine weeks due to forecasts for mild weather, record output and low LNG exports.