Faced with a new frost in Texas, the natural gas distribution network would not have the capacity to maneuver: César Cadena

Monterrey, NL. In the northeast, the demand for natural gas grows faster than the supply, and in the event of a frost like the one that occurred in February 2021 in Texaswould severely affect the distribution network because everything is interconnected and there is no room for maneuver, said César Cadena Cadena, president of the Nuevo León Energy Cluster.

“What the Energy Control Center (Pricing) says is that there is no maneuverability, if for example, I supply 80% but I have 20% (stored), there would be no problem, when I supply 95% anything can affect you, the problem is that the system and it protects itself because everything is interconnected”, asserted César Cadena.

As will be remembered, from February 13 to 15, 2021, a winter storm was observed throughout the north of the state of Texas, which left the state without power for several days, due to the combination of a mass of cold air that rotated over the arctic , and a dry climate due to the La Niña phenomenon, the specialists indicate.

As a consequence, the supply of natural gas to various federal entities was suspended.

A poll carried out that week by the Chamber of the Transformation Industry of Nuevo León with its partners, revealed that 33% of industrial gas users suffered some interruption in supply between Monday and Tuesday of that week.

14% of the industry continued without gas availability in their company for more days; another 19% managed to restore the gas service, but commented that they had been affected in recent days; which resulted in some production lines having to stop.

30% of the companies that use gas in their processes suffered some interruption in service and did not receive notice from the authorities or suppliers.

increase natural gas

Another challenge for the industry in Nuevo León is that natural gas prices are expected to rise in January to over 7 dollars per million BTU, according to estimates from the Secretary of Energywhile in the month of November it was quoted at 6.47 million BTU.

Due to the fact that energy is acquired via pipelines, the region with the highest prices between September and October was III (Nuevo León and Tamaulipas), with 6.15 dollars per million BTU, indicates the Onexpo.

On the other hand, in the Annual Energy Report, carried out by Gabriela Siller Pagaza, director of Economic Analysis of Grupo Financiero Base, recalled that natural gas NYMEX (USA) reached a maximum price of 10.03 dollars per million BTU, last 23 August, a figure not seen since July 23, 2008.

“During the year, gains in energy were mainly associated with downside risks to supply, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis in Europe that began after the coronavirus (Sars-Cov-2) pandemic. , and worsened with the invasion of Ukraine,” the report said.

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