Due in part to unplanned work on TC Energy Corp’s Mountaineer Xpress pipeline in West Virginia, US natural gas production was on track to drop by a record amount on Tuesday to its lowest since September 2018. US output was expected to drop by 4.2 bcfd to 84.6 bcfd on Tuesday. If correct, that would be the biggest daily decline on record.
Work on the 2.6-bcfd Mountaineer Xpress was expected to reduce output in West Virginia by around 2.0 bcfd, analysts said. The rest of the nation’s production declines were scattered among several other states and not necessarily related to Mountaineer.
Due to unplanned maintenance, TC Energy’s Columbia Gas Transmission (TCO) unit, which operates the Mountaineer pipe, declared a force majeure effective for the evening cycle on Tuesday, July 7. Despite the output decline on Tuesday, Refinitiv said production in the Lower 48 US states has averaged 88.1 bcfd so far in July.
