Frigid weather in the US Southwest choked off natural gas supply in the region on Friday as production wells froze, starving pipeline networks and forcing companies to draw maximum volumes from storage. Unusually cold temperatures in the gas-producing Southwest have affected supply equal to 5 percent of US consumption in recent days, shutting power plants and causing rolling blackouts.
El Paso, which operates a major natural gas pipeline system in Texas, declared a force majeure on some of its gas supply late on Thursday, a posting on the company's website said. El Paso has been forced to draw maximum amounts of gas from storage to meet customer demand since February 2. The force majeure is in place until further notice.
"El Paso's Washington Ranch storage field has been on maximum withdrawal to support the system," El Paso said in a statement. US gas prices were unmoved by the supply constraints. Despite one of the coldest winters in 10 years, national storage levels - above the 5-year average - are easily sufficient to meet any shortfall in pipeline supply. On Friday, US gas futures were near unchanged, off 0.1 percent at $4.33 per million British termal units.
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