Welcome to a very busy Easter weekend edition of GasNewsOnline.com!  There are a host of critical notices from several of the country’s interstate natural gas pipeline companies about issues relating to changes in pipeline operating conditions. 

Plus, we’ll also update you on the latest publicly released news of the day and provide the first glimpse of May’s expected temperatures from the National Weather Service, too.  

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Working natural gas in storage was 1.247 Tcf as of Friday, April 12, 2019, according to US Energy Information Administration estimates. This represents a net increase of 92 Bcf (which was 5 Bcf greater than analyst estimates). 

Natural gas stocks were 414 Bcf (or

26%) below the five-year average for the same week. 

On the NYMEX, the May, 2019 natural gas futures price reacted to the news and was down about three cents on Thursday at approximately $2.49/MMBtu.   Natural gas prices declined to their lowest level in nearly three years due to a seasonal lull in heating and cooling demand combined with surging gas supplies. 

It is interesting to note that not a single month of today’s NYMEX natural gas futures strip (through April, 2021) showed a natural gas price above $3.00/MMBtu.

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During today’s quarterly earnings release and conference call, Kinder Morgan provided an update on a few natural gas pipeline projects currently in progress:

In the Permian area, construction

continues on the Gulf Coast Express

Pipeline (GCX) project. The remaining 40 miles of the 36-inch Midland

lateral was placed in service at the beginning of April 2019. Construction is

progressing well on the 42-inch mainline and compressor stations associated

with the project, which remains on schedule for a full in-service date of

October 2019.

The approximately $1.75 billion project

is designed to transport about 2.0 Bcf/d of natural gas from the Permian Basin

to the Agua Dulce, Texas area, and is fully subscribed under long-term, binding

agreements.

Progress also continues on the Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) project .

The civil and environmental surveys are substantially complete, and the land

acquisition process is underway.

The approximately $2 billion PHP

Project is designed to transport up to 2.1 Bcf/d of natural gas through

approximately 430 miles of 42-inch pipeline from the Waha, Texas area to the

U.S. Gulf Coast and Mexico markets and is expected to be in service in October

2020, pending regulatory approvals.

On the East Coast, the first of ten

liquefaction units of the nearly $2 billion Elba Liquefaction Project is expected to be placed in service by

approximately May 1, 2019. The remaining nine units are expected to be placed

in service sequentially, one per month thereafter.

The federally approved project at the existing Southern LNG Company facility at Elba Island near Savannah, Georgia, will have a total liquefaction capacity of approximately 2.5 million tonnes per year of LNG, equivalent to approximately 350 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

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In summary, many interstate natural gas pipelines have posted critical notices to shippers requiring that they do not create pipeline imba...