November 17, 2021

The following can be attributed to Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association:

“We are still evaluating the FERC report and comparing it to findings in ERCOT’s report that found fuel limitations (from all sources) to be only 12% of the cause of Texas power generator outages and derates during the storm (page 10; ERCOT’s Post-storm report). Many operators proactively implemented winterization measures and reported that loss of power was the predominant reason for lack of production during this historic storm. As with any event, operators are reviewing procedures and response plans, implementing best practices, and increasing the readiness of their systems based on lessons learned from Winter Storm Uri and new state laws passed by the Texas Legislature. Communications improvements have been made among stakeholders up and down Texas’ electricity grid to address load shed management and protect the most critical infrastructure. Thanks to Texas’ robust natural gas storage and midstream infrastructure, even though production losses were significant due to a variety of reasons, the amount of gas in the marketplace available for purchase and delivery to natural gas users was plentiful, as Texas has 544 bcf of working natural gas storage. The FERC report acknowledges this important factor on page 121 by confirming: “Natural gas pipelines and shippers were able to meet their obligations partly due to the effective use of production- and market-area storage fields.” Natural gas carried the load during the storm, providing up to two-thirds of the fuel for electricity and powering the vast majority of Texas homes during the storm’s coldest days.”

NOTE: Natural gas production in Texas ranges from 22-25 bcfd while demand is about 12-14 bcfd, and our state’s natural gas storage daily withdraw rate is about 17 bcfd.