Even With Flaring, Natural Gas Storage Is Rising

Oil producers across the Permian Basin burn off, or “flare,” natural gas that they can’t store or transport. Even so, the supply of natural gas in the marketplace is growing.

By Laura RiceOctober 21, 2019 11:56 am,

Natural gas flaring is common practice in Texas’ Permian Basin. Natural gas is a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing, and oil producers often don’t have the pipeline infrastructure to capture that gas – so they burn it. It can be a useful source of energy for cooking, home heating, powering factories and more. Despite the regularity of flaring, more and more natural gas is now being stored and ready for consumers and industry to use.

Matt Smith is director of commodity research at ClipperData, and says stores of natural gas recently reached higher-than-average levels. He says that matters because the more natural gas available in the marketplace the lower prices will be.

“Demand continues to grow for natural gas,” Smith says. “Particularly from the [energy] generation sector: We’re seeing in Texas … natural gas consumption there is outpacing coal. And that’s happening on a national basis.”

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– How natural gas from the Permian and Eagle Ford shale plays in Texas are dominating the natural gas market

– How new terminals are opening to export liquefied natural gas abroad

– Why a warm 2019 winter should keep natural gas prices low

 

Written by Caroline Covington.