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Natural gas shortage could lead to power outages during coldest months

November 1, 2022

Natural gas shortage could lead to power outages during coldest months

Joe Nolan, the CEO of Eversource, said a shortage of natural gas poses a serious health and safety threat.
HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) – Connecticut and other New England states could be in trouble this winter when it comes to natural gas.

Joe Nolan, the CEO of Eversource, said a shortage of natural gas poses a serious health and safety threat.

Nolan sent a letter to President Joe Biden in which he said something needed to be done to avoid a shortage this winter.

In the letter, Nolan said rolling blackouts could be a solution that many customers might see.

While New England energy companies warned about rolling blackouts in the past, Nolan claimed this season might be different.

“I am just concerned that if we get a polar vortex or cold snap in the region, that will not be enough fuel for the electric generating units in the area to supply electricity for our customers,” he said.

He said Eversource has roughly 20 days’ worth of supply in tanks for emergencies. However, the war in Ukraine has impacted the company’s ability to get the extra supply of natural gas it would need in a weather crisis.

Nolan said he has been working to remedy the situation. He offered four proposals to Biden, including a waiver from the Jones Act.

“There is an awful lot of liquified natural gas that’s down in the gulf that we could access if we get relief from the Jones Act, which would allow a foreign flag vessel to go to the gulf and fill up and come to the northeast and deliver liquified natural gas, which right now we are not allowed to do,” Nolan said.

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Toronto gas stations running low on fuel thanks to nasty winter weather

February 3, 2019

Toronto gas stations running low on fuel thanks to nasty winter weather

Road conditions and extreme cold making it hard for trucks to deliver gas

Drivers in Toronto are having a hard time finding gas this week thanks to a stretch of heavy snow and bitterly cold temperatures. (The Associated Press)7 comments

After a week of snow, wind and bitter cold, Old Man Winter is now making life hard for Torontonians at the gas pumps.

Dozens of stations around the city have been out of fuel for days, leaving drivers confused and in the lurch.

Suppliers say the bad weather has made it hard to deliver fuel to the empty stations, though none have said when the stations will be up and running as usual.

“Poor weather conditions in the GTA has impacted our delivery schedule. We are working to replenish the sites as quickly as we can, while ensuring the safety of our people,” wrote Nicole Fisher, a spokesperson for Suncor Energy.

“This is an industry issue caused by poor road conditions and extreme cold,” said Kristen Schmidt of Shell Canada.

Dan McTeague, a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy, is advising drivers to avoid filling up unless they have to. He also thinks the crunch will be over soon.

“You’re likely to see by midpoint next week, this really won’t be much of an issue,” he told CBC Toronto.

“There’s no shortage at refineries, there’s no shortage at the terminal, the pipelines are working quite well. It’s the truck transportation and the logistics around that,” he added.

World’s Cheapest Natural Gas Market Could Be Facing A Shortage

November 1, 2018

World’s Cheapest Natural Gas Market Could Be Facing A Shortage

Natural Gas

A natural gas shortage in Canada is expected to last through the winter months, forcing gas users ranging from industrial forces to local governments to seek alternative fuel sources and strategies for slashing consumption and conserving the gas they have. The shortage stems from this month’s pipeline explosion near Prince George, British Columbia.

In the aftermath of the explosion, FortisBC, one of British Columbia’s largest utilities, says that their supply of natural gas will be reduced by a whopping 50 to 80 percent throughout the coldest months of the year. This sudden squeeze will necessitate a lot of unforeseen expenditures on alternative fuel sources. This is a cost that will be passed directly onto consumers, affecting everything from the price of gas and heating to even the price of vegetables, among other subsequent price hikes.

Natural gas has service has already been restored to the province in the wake of the October 9th disaster, and pipeline owner Enbridge says that it will have the section of the pipeline that ruptured back online by the middle of November. The National Energy Board, however, has mandated that Enbridge limit pressure in the ruptured line, and a smaller line nearby will also remain running below capacity until the spring of next year. As a safety measure, pressure levels will be kept at 80 percent along the entire length of the damaged pipeline up to the United States border.

The shortage is occurring in what is one of the cheapest natural gas markets in the world. Canadian gas has been hit hard by competition from the United States and limited pipeline infrastructure, which has only been made worse by the Prince George explosion. After the announcement that FortisBC’s pipes would remain running under capacity through the winter, gas prices fell to a five-month low last week.

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Australia Looks To Tackle Its Looming Gas Shortage

June 19, 2018

Australia Looks To Tackle Its Looming Gas Shortage

LNG carrier

In a strange about-face for the world’s soon to be top liquified natural gas (LNG) exporter, Australia is now considering importing the fuel. On Monday, ExxonMobil, Australia’s top gas supplier, said it is considering importing the super-cooled fuel to help offset an anticipated gas shortage from 2021 going forward as well as protecting its market share.

ExxonMobil is also stepping up exploration off the coast of Victoria and considering developing a gas field called West Barracouta close to an existing field, the oil major also said in an emailed statement on Monday.

“Combined with the existing Gippsland resource and infrastructure, an LNG import facility could ensure ExxonMobil can continue to meet our customers’ needs,” the company said, adding that the facility could become operational by around 2022.

Looming gas shortage Down Under

This disclosure comes as Australia struggles with a natural gas shortage, a unique phenomenon for the gas exporting giant. Late last year, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and the Australian Energy Market Operator said that gas shortfalls in the country for 2018 and 2019 would be much worse than originally forecasted. They both predicted a shortfall of nearly 110 petajoules of gas in 2018 and similar in 2019, which represents about one-sixth of the projected amount of gas demand in Australia.

In light of this growing problem, late last year Canberra threated to put gas export regulations in place, but the idea has been put on hold as the government and suppliers work out a deal.

However, upping the ante even more, Australia’s energy market operator warned in March that Victoria, the country’s biggest gas consuming state, could face shortages from mid-2021 due to a rapid drop in supply from the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture, owned by ExxonMobil and BHP Billiton, Reuters said in a report. Related: The Fed Is Driving Down Oil Prices

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Looming Gas Shortage: “Imports Can’t Make Up For This”

September 1, 2017

Looming Gas Shortage: “Imports Can’t Make Up For This”

Out Of Gas

The East Coast will start feeling the effects of Hurricane Harvey as the gasoline supplied from the Gulf Coast starts to dry up. One of the most important pipelines that ships refined products to the Eastern Seaboard shut down on Thursday, which means that the U.S. Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast could see supply disruptions and price increases.

The Colonial Pipeline carries gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from several refineries in Houston, Port Arthur and Lake Charles, along the Texas and Louisiana Coast, up through the U.S. Southeast to Washington DC, Baltimore, and New Jersey.

The pipeline had been operational through the worst of the Hurricane, easing fears about supply disruptions. But the outages at the nation’s top refineries along the Gulf Coast have forced the Colonial Pipeline company to announce on Wednesday that it was shutting down Line 2, which carries diesel and jet fuel due to “supply constraints.” And on Thursday, the company shuttered Line 1, the pipeline that carries gasoline. The pipeline company said that operations would only resume when it can “ensure that its facilities are safe to operate and refiners in Lake Charles and points east have the ability to move product to Colonial.”

It is hard to overstate the critical role that the Colonial Pipeline plays. It carries 2.5 million barrels of refined products per day, or as the FT notes, “roughly one in every eight barrels of fuel consumed in the country.” More importantly, it is one of the only suppliers for major cities on the eastern seaboard, including New York, Washington DC and Atlanta.

“With no refineries between the Gulf coast and Pennsylvania, the south-east is largely dependent on pipelines from the Gulf coast for their fuel, with Colonial being the largest,” Jason Bordoff, the director of Columbia University’s Centre on Global Energy Policy, told the FT.

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