The Heat Is On - Is the U.S. Northeast in for a Supply-Challenged, High-Price Heating Season?

The leaves have already fallen off New England’s trees, the first snow has come and gone, and the six-state region is preparing for another long, cold winter — this time with no Tom Brady and little hope that their beloved Patriots will make it to the playoffs. There is at least some good news, though: record volumes of propane have been railed or shipped into New England and put in storage, which should help to ensure that the many homes and businesses that depend on the fuel for space heating will stay warm. Today, we discuss propane supply and demand in the northeastern corner of the U.S., including a look at SEA-3 Newington — New England’s largest propane storage and distribution center, which rails in the fuel from the Marcellus/Utica and Canada and imports and exports propane by ship.

New England’s aggressive effort to decarbonize is a tangled web. Over the past several years, the six-state region has replaced oil- and coal-fired power plants with natural gas-fired ones but most proposals to build new gas pipeline capacity have been rejected. It’s also made ambitious plans to add renewables — especially solar and offshore wind — to its power generation mix but many of the largest, most impactful projects have been delayed or canceled. And now there’s a big push to electrify space heating and transportation, which will significantly increase power demand, especially during the winter months, when New England’s electric grid is already skating on thin ice. In today’s RBN blog, we examine the region’s looming power supply challenges and how its energy transition plans may affect natural gas, LNG, heating oil and propane markets.

Several large-scale gas pipeline expansions targeting the New England and New York City markets have been sidelined in the past year, either due to insufficient financial backing or the challenges of regulatory rigmarole in the region. But in recent weeks, a couple of smaller-scale projects along existing rights-of-way have managed to cross the finish line, allowing incremental gas supplies to trickle into the region. The new pipeline capacity will provide natural gas utilities and power generators in the region with greater access to additional gas supplies from the nearby Marcellus Shale this winter. Today, we look at recent capacity additions and their potential impacts.