Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on February 7, 2014
‘Polar vortex’ brought record natural gas demand
The “polar vortex” of early January and the deep freeze not long after resulted in record demand for natural gas, Bentek Energy said Monday.
The extreme winter weather in January resulted in seven out of the 10 biggest demand days on record for the U.S., said Bentek, an unit of Platts.
January natural-gas demand averaged 102 billion cubic feet a day, nearly 8 bcf a day higher than the previous maximum monthly average demand and, all told, 241 bcf more natural gas consumption than any other month on record, Bentek added. Natural-gas spot prices soared above $100 per million British thermal units.
Shutterstock.com Enlarge Image
The freezing weather also fast-tracked demand expectations. Bentek had projected a similar level of demand around January 2019, when liquefied natural gas exports are expected to become a new source of natural-gas demand for the U.S.
Natural-gas demand, however, was well in the rear view mirror on Monday, when energy stocks fell after a weaker-than-expected reading on manufacturing data.
The broader stock market fell as well, with all sectors of the S&P 500 index in the red. The biggest losers in the energy sector included Newfield Exploration Co. NFX +0.09% , down 4%, and Valero Energy Co. VLO +0.02% , off 3.3%.
Solar stocks fared no better, with solar installer SolarCity Corp. SCTY +3.68% retreating 5.3%. SunPower Corp. SPWR -3.26% sliding 7%. Solar-panel maker First Solar Inc. FSLR -0.06% declined 5%.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc. AAPL +0.17% is expected to continue to experiment with solar-charging batteries, with an article in The New York Times saying Apple’s ‘iWatch’ could be powered by solar or wireless charging.
The article points out that Apple posted a job listing in the fall looking for engineers specializing in solar.
6 Comments on "‘Polar vortex’ brought record natural gas demand"
J-Gav on Fri, 7th Feb 2014 11:53 pm
Well, that’s hardly surprising, is it?
action on Sat, 8th Feb 2014 2:07 am
I’m now a consumer of natural gas having just moved and was definitely a part of that consumption, expensive too.
rollin on Sat, 8th Feb 2014 4:13 pm
Feels like the old days, except more cyclical. Weather seems to get stuck in repeating patterns now.
No brainer, it gets colder than the past few winters and the natural gas demand goes up. Since we have converted more furnaces to natural gas over the years, it is obvious that records will be set for demand. Also the electric production is more natural gas fired now, driving the demand even higher on cold days when electric heat pulls hardest.
Northwest Resident on Sat, 8th Feb 2014 11:24 pm
File this under the “No shit, Sherlock” tab.
Kenz300 on Sun, 9th Feb 2014 5:32 pm
Once installed wind and solar have no monthly fuel bills…………………………..
TIRBS on Mon, 10th Feb 2014 8:51 pm
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the quoted price for a MMBtu is an order of magnitude higher than it is in reality. 1 MMBtu is equivalent to 28.31 cubic metres. Retail gas prices in Ontario are approximately 0.35 cents per cubic metre so on the retail market this equals roughly $9.90. NYMEX is currently listing gas for $4.58 USD / MMBtu. It looks like the price of a barrel of WTI oil has gone back over $100 per barrel but if Natural Gas went to $100 / MMBtu it would cost approximately $7000.00 to heat the average home for fuel alone, other utility fees and riders not withstanding. This is about $583.33 per month… seems a tad expensive.