Natural gas production in the United States dropped to an 11-month lower on Sunday as a result of frozen wells across the country. The demand for gas is expect to reach all-time highs for both power generation and heating.
According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the record high set last summer is anticipated to be surpassed by electric demand in Texas.
On Monday, ERCOT released a public call for energy conservation from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. CT. This week saw the largest decline in U.S. petrol availability in more than a year, with supplies expected to drop by approximately 9.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) between January 8 and 14, reaching an estimated 11-month lower of 98.6 bcfd on that day.
Freezing weather led to a projected reduction in North Dakota’s oil production by 250,000 to 280,000 barrels per day. Simultaneously, petrol output experienced a decrease of 700 million to 800 MMcf/d.
According to ERCOT estimates, power consumption in the mornings of January 15 and January 16 could surpass supplies by about 1,000 MW.
One of the states most severely affected by the freeze was Oregon. Where on Sunday, about 164,000 houses and companies were without power.
At the Mid-Columbia hub, power costs the following day surged to a record high of about $1,075 per megawatt hour (MWh).
Northwest Pipeline resumed operations after a natural gas storage plant outage that prompted them to declare force majeure.