(Argus 7/3/2012) The Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia “has been holding up production for the rest of the country” in 2012, offsetting a downward trend in combined natural gas output from all other US basins since January, RBN Energy president Rusty Braziel said today.
Competition for pipeline space in the mid-Atlantic region during periods of peak cooling demand from customers withdrawing gas from storage and producers moving Marcellus shale volumes to the market already is contributing to wide price swings at select pipe-line segments, such as Tennessee Gas pipeline’s (TGP) 300 Line, according to Braziel. The problem will be exacerbated during the winter heating season as none of the ongoing midstream expansions in the northeast US addresses “getting gas out of the ground from storage facilities and production facilities at the same time,” he said.
