The High-Stakes Storage Gamble

 

AGA decision to shut in storage survey rattles energy markets.

The race is on to fill the data void created by the American Gas Association's (AGA's) decision to stop gathering and publishing its weekly underground storage information. Aside from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA), which announced in late October it would enter the weekly gas data business, several private companies are expected to vie to be the first to set up shop as the industry's new major weekly storage data provider.

AGA, the Washington lobbyist for 185 natural gas utilities across the nation, surprised many in the energy industry in October when it announced that it was exiting the weekly storage data business. In the discontinuance notice, AGA said it would issue its final working gas-in-storage report on Jan. 2, 2002, covering storage activity for the week ending Dec. 28.

Since the announcement, some industry officials have expressed a desire for AGA to continue issuing the storage inventory report through the end of this coming winter. Gauging gas inventories is most crucial in the January to March timeframe, when gas usage hits its traditional peak, and the market must decide whether to meet demand by pulling gas from storage or taking it straight from the wellhead.