U.S. Working Gas Storage

The U.S. gas market runs on a rhythmic seasonal cycle: April–October the system injects into storage as residential heating demand collapses; November–March it withdraws as that demand returns. Total Lower-48 working gas right now is — bcf. The EIA splits the country into five storage regions with very different roles — South-Central holds the salt-dome caverns that cycle fastest, Midwest is the largest by capacity, Pacific is structurally isolated.

Current working gas 5-yr range tank height ∝ recent peak · fill ∝ current stocks

Lower-48 total

—

— vs 5-yr avg

—

Largest region

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Days of supply

—

stocks ÷ ~100 bcf/d demand

Cycle phase

—

— of season

SOURCE · U.S. Energy Information Administration, Natural Gas Weekly Update — Working Gas in Underground Storage. EIA divides the Lower 48 into five storage regions (W_EPG0_SWO_R31_BCF through R35). South-Central is reported as Salt + Nonsalt; we sum them. The dashed line on each tank is the same-week-of-year 5-year average — the industry's reference for whether the system is structurally short or long heading into shoulder season. Storage capacity isn't published as a single number per region; tank heights here reflect each region's recent 5-year peak as a "design ceiling" proxy.

SECOND·ORDER·EDGE

Working gas storagethe seasonal buffer

Working gas storage
the seasonal buffer