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Natural gas market indicators
The fundamental strong supply/weak demand natural gas market environment has not changed, despite prices that have fallen, first precipitously then steadily, since last July. Understanding the current market environment is relatively simple and needs to be viewed in that context.
The plain vanilla forces of supply and demand have led to interesting questions such as “why hasn’t domestic production fallen off more” and “when, if ever, will prices rebound?” Most analysts see a push from demand, as the likeliest driver for fundamental price increases in the future.
Visit this link to download the full Natural Gas Market Indicator. Topics covered include: Reported Prices, Weather, Working Gas in Underground Storage, Natural Gas Production, Rig Counts, Pipeline Imports and Exports, and LNG Markets.
National Academies Confirms What the American Gas Association Has Been Saying for Years – Full-Fuel-Cycle is the Measurement Standard of Choice!
The big news in the natural gas world today is a report released by the National Academy of Sciences that advocates that “the U.S. Department of Energy should consider gradually changing its system of setting appliance energy-efficiency standards to a full-fuel-cycle measurement, which takes into account both the energy used to operate an appliance, as well as upstream energy costs – energy consumed in producing and distributing fuels from coal, oil, and natural gas, and energy lost in generating and delivering electric power.”
What does that mean? What it means is the same thing AGA has been saying for years and reiterates in our press release today praising the National Academies.
Natural gas is highly efficient. To pull from the release, 70 percent of the total amount of fuels used in producing, generating and transmitting electricity is lost by the time that electricity reaches a customer. By contrast, producing and delivering natural gas directly loses only about 10 percent of its usable energy.
That’s obviously a big difference.
The release goes on to underscore how the study echoes the ‘carbon footprint labeling’ provisions that were recently included in the Waxman-Markey climate change legislation, which would expand the existing Federal Trade Commission EnergyGuide labeling program for home appliances to include carbon footprint information.
The carbon label is a big deal and Dave sums it well when he says, “This study recommends a change in the way that we look at energy efficiency in our appliances and it should be expanded to include building codes that also measure energy efficiency.”
It’s great to hear other people get what AGA has been saying for years. I know we have a few DOE people that browse this blog. What do you guys think? Is the National Academies a reliable enough source to Full-Fuel-Cycle Measurement Approach. Just asking. 
If you’re interested, you can visit AGA’s energy efficiency page for more information on the benefits of natural gas.
Natural Gas Roundtable: Dr. Stelzer
We’re gearing up for our next Natural Gas Roundtable on Thursday May 28. This month’s speaker is Dr. Irwin Stelzer, senior fellow and director of Hudson Institute. Dr. Stelzer’s topic will be: “The Impact on the Natural Gas Industry of Emerging Energy Policy.” Definitely a timely discussion.
Dr. Stelzer is a senior fellow and director of Hudson Institute’s economic policy studies group. Prior to joining Hudson Institute in 1998, Stelzer was resident scholar and director of regulatory policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He also is the U.S. economic and political columnist for The Sunday Times (London) and The Courier Mail (Australia), and a contributing editor of The Weekly Standard.
The Natural Gas Roundtable always gets a great speaker. Last month, we had Red Cavaney, ConocoPhillips‘ senior vice president of Government and Public Affairs. Red also served as the CEO of API and on the senior White House staff for Presidents Reagan, Ford and Nixon. You can read a recap of that Roundtable over at Platts.
Red Cavaney, ConocoPhillips’ senior vice president of Government and Public Affairs, after his remarks at the Natural Gas Roundtable.
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