We’re producing roughly 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas – every day – to help heat our homes, hospitals, schools, offices, factories, as well as power our electric grid (and thereby also help those families who use electricity for heating).
In the Appalachian/mid-Atlantic region, where Cabot’s operations are principally located, natural gas is vital to keeping families warm.
In Pennsylvania, half of households use natural gas for heating. In Ohio, 65 percent of households use gas for heating, in West Virginia it’s 40 percent, in Maryland it’s 44 percent, in New Jersey it’s a remarkable 75 percent, and in New York it’s nearly 60 percent.
Now, as neighborhoods from the Ohio River Valley to New England and beyond face temperatures in 40s, 30s and colder – along with blustery wind and snow – know that Cabot will continue working (whatever the temperatures or conditions) to deliver reliable, affordable natural gas to local communities.
Key to that reliability are new pipeline projects like the Atlantic Sunrise Project, which came into service in October after almost five years after initially announced. New pipeline capacity like that of Atlantic Sunrise, the planned Leidy South expansion project, PennEast Pipeline and others are essential to keeping natural gas prices affordable as demand increases as temperatures fall.
Cabot’s natural gas production has helped overall U.S. natural gas production average 83.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2018 – should the average daily production hold, this year will mark a new American record.
The robust production “is expected to provide flexibility and optionality to compensate for below-average storage inventories at the beginning of the winter heating season,” explains the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA).
NGSA’s 2018-2019 Winter Outlook for Natural Gas forecasts that America’s “overall natural gas demand is projected to be more than 102 Bcf/day. Although that is a record amount of winter demand, it is only 3 percent more than the winter of 2017-2018, thus, customer demand is expected to place neutral pressure on natural gas prices.”
Similarly, the American Gas Association (AGA), reported that residential natural bills could be lower this winter compared to last year due to expectations of a warmer-than-normal winter.
AGA’s Richard Meyer explained,
“As natural gas utilities prepare for another winter heating season, record levels of production are offsetting lower storage inventories in the supply mix while prices remain low and stable. We continue to see robust supply that is well positioned to serve customer needs. These trends could speak to an evolution of how utilities and others make strategic use of natural gas storage.”
We know it’s cold and will remain so for the next few months. So as we all bundle up to head outdoors, we can assure families that while indoors we’ll do our part to help maintain America’s robust natural gas supply flowing to warm their homes and neighborhoods.
We look forward to continuing to fuel our economy as we head into 2019!