Since Wednesday, August 29, natural gas spot prices increased in most markets (exceptions were Florida and Rocky Mountain region).  Crude oil was up over $2 per barrel.

Predictions of an underuse of an LNG regasification capacity continue.  One report is that if the 22 LNG terminals that have been approved for construction are built, their combined regasification capacity could reach 349 Bcm/y.  (If US LNG consumption grows 6% annually, consumption will total 46 Bcm/y by 2020.)

The EIA also reports that:

–  Florida Gas Transmission Company (FGT) issued an Overage Alert Day for September 5 with a 25 percent tolerance level as a result of high temperatures in its service territory.  FGT announced that it would not interrupt previously scheduled market area interruptible transportation service below the elapsed-prorated-scheduled quantity.  Furthermore, on September 5, FGT announced maintenance work beginning on September 6, which is expected to last until September 8.  The unscheduled maintenance is on the larger of the two units located in Mississippi at Tennessee Carnes Interconnect, upstream of FGT Compressor Station.  Because of the maintenance, FGT announced that during the outage the company will schedule up to about 950,000 MMBtu/day, whereas, normally, the company would schedule up to 1,150,000 MMBtu/day.

–   Colorado Interstate Gas Company announced on August 30 that it is undertaking maintenance at the Beaver Compressor station located south of Springfield, Colorado. One unit at the station will be out of service from September 6 to 30.  Capacity will be reduced to 250 MMcf/d from 262 MMcf/d. 

–   El Paso Natural Gas Company announced on September 1 that there was potential for high linepack conditions on its system.  The Washington Ranch storage facility located in Eddy County, New Mexico, is currently on maximum capacity for injection.  Furthermore, the company announced a strained operating condition warning, which was cancelled on September 3.

–   Transco Gas Pipeline Corporation released a notice on September 4 regarding firm backhaul transportation service for winter 2007-2008.  During September 4 to 11, Transco will be considering requests for firm backhaul transportation service for up to 200,000 decatherms per day (Dth/d) with a primary path from the Northeast, Station 210 in Zone 6 to Northeastern Louisiana, station 65 in zone 3.  The service period will be from October 1, 2007, through April 30, 2008.

From the EIA