HOUSTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Working natural gas storage in the contiguous United States was 2,533 billion cubic feet (about 72 billion cubic meters) as of last Friday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Thursday.
Working natural gas is defined as the amount of natural gas stored underground that can be withdrawn for use.
The latest data represents a net decrease of 81 billion cubic feet from the previous week, 77 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 327 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 2,860 billion cubic feet.
According to EIA, at 2,533 billion cubic feet, total working gas is within the five-year historical range.
The contiguous United States, or Lower 48 states, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, which excludes the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii, and all off-shore insular areas.
Working natural gas storage capacity can be measured in two ways: design capacity and demonstrated maximum working gas capacity.
According to the report released in March 2018 by EIA, U.S. natural gas design capacity was up slightly, with nationally design capacity up by 0.7 percent, or 34 billion cubic feet, between November 2016 and November 2017, increasing to 4,725 billion cubic feet.
U.S. demonstrated peak storage capacity, in contrast to design capacity, was down in nearly every region and down 1.0 percent for the Lower 48 states as of November 2017 compared with November 2016, or by 46 billion cubic feet, to 4,317 billion cubic feet.
Meanwhile, in its January Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), released on Tuesday, EIA forecast that U.S. dry natural gas production will average 90.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2019 and 92.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2020, higher than the average of 83.3 billion cubic feet in 2018.
EIA also forecast that gross U.S. exports of natural gas will rise by 31.5 percent to 13.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2019 and then by 15.1 percent to 15.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2020.
In 2018, the United States exported more natural gas than it imported, with net exports averaging 2.1 billion cubic feet per day.
EIA also forecast that Henry Hub natural gas spot prices will average 2.89 U.S. dollars per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2019 and 2.92 dollars per MMBtu in 2020, down from 3.15 dollars per MMBtu in 2018.
The Henry Hub is a distribution hub on the natural gas pipeline system in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Spot and future natural gas prices set at Henry Hub are generally seen to be the primary price set for the North American natural gas market.
