2024 Pacific Northwest Gas Market Outlook

In June, the Northwest Gas Association released its biennial Pacific Northwest Natural Gas Market Outlook (Outlook), outlining the industry perspective on the dynamics affecting natural gas providers and consumers in the PacificNorthwest. It is a collection of publicly available and NWGA-member-company data.

The region’s natural gas system delivers warmth and comfort to homes, energy to heat space and hot water incommercial buildings, fuel for cooking in restaurants and homes, and productive energy for industrial purposes. The natural gas system includes interstate pipelines that transport gas from where it is produced to where it isconsumed. On average, almost half of the energy consumed in the region (excluding transportation and fuel forelectricity generation) comes from natural gas.

The Outlook shows that this regional system spans 128,000 miles (more than five times around the earth).  NWGAmember companies delivered heat to 3.5 million households (~10 million people), along with space, water and heat to almost 350,000 businesses, institutions and industries.

The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of natural gas, with more than 100 years of supply at current consumption levels – and Canada has more than 200 years of supply. The Pacific Northwest is immediately adjacent and directly connected to prolific natural gas producing regions, including the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB; Alberta, British Columbia) and the U.S. Rockies (CO, UT, WY).

Natural gas remains an extremely affordable source of energy, more so than electricity. The wholesale cost ofnatural gas has plummeted with the surge in supply over the last decade and a half. The average inflation adjusted wholesale commodity cost was historically low in the 2010s and remains lower today than it was in the 1970s.According to the Energy Information Agency, the cost of natural gas delivered to homes and businesses here istypically 2.5 to 3 times cheaper than the same energy unit of delivered electricity.

NWGA members are committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while still providing its customers withchoices and solutions at reasonable and predictable costs. Total GHG emissions from the natural gas system decreased 12% between 1990-2021, even as production increased 94% and hundreds of thousands of miles of distribution and transmission pipelines were added (source: EPA). Lowering the carbon-content of the energy NWGA members deliver will come from a variety of innovations, including Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), distributed hydrogen technologies that utilize the gas system, as well as carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

Click here to read the full 2024 Gas Market Outlook.