Underground natural gas storage in the United States, 1981-1982 heating year (April 1981-March 1982)

This edition is the third in a series of annual reports on the Nation's underground natural gas storage. The report provides information on the operations, capacity, and location of underground natural gas storage facilities to a wide audience including industry, consumers, government agencies, and educational institutions. As of March 31, 1982, the end of the 1981 to 1982 heating year, the 402 active underground storage reservoirs in the United States contained 5355 billion cubic feet of natural gas (Table 1). Of this total, approximately 70.1% was base, or cushion, gas, and 29.9% was working gas. The volume of the latter is usually built up by injecting gas into storage when market requirements are below available gas flow in transmission lines during the nonheating portion (April 1 through October 31) of the heating year. Net injections during the nonheating portion of the 1981 to 1982 heating year of 1685 billion cubic feet were 15.3% of total dry gas production excluding nonhydrocarbon gases during the same period. Net withdrawals during the 1981 to 1982 heating season of 1618 billion cubic feet (Table 2) were equivalent to 16.5% of total estimated gas consumption during the same period. Working gas in storage at themore » end of the 1981 to 1982 heating year totaled 1601 billion cubic feet, approximately 1.8% below that available at the beginning of the heating year. This decline, despite an excess of storage injections over withdrawals (net injections) of 67 billion cubic feet during the heating year, was the result of book transfers from the working gas to base gas category. The volume of base gas in storage increased 2.7% to 3754 billion cubic feet. As of March 31, 1982, the 88 companies known to operate active underground storage facilities (see Appendix B) reported a total of 402 storage reservoirs with a combined capacity of 7829 billion cubic feet.« less