East Coast propane inventory needs monitoring

East Coast propane inventory should be monitored closely as new export capacity comes online, says Debnil Chowdhury of IHS Markit.

The region had about 8 million barrels of propane storage heading into the heating season, and “we’re going to need to hold more inventory,” Chowdhury told the National Propane Gas Association’s Propane Supply and Logistics Committee during its fall meeting in Houston. Chowdhury points to the Mariner East 2 pipeline, which has been under construction, as “a huge wildcard.”

He says the risk of low days of disposition exists if inter-PADD transfers and production do not keep up with new contracted exports. The Mariner East projects are designed to provide pipeline infrastructure to transport ethane, propane and other petroleum products from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields to Pennsylvania markets and for export from the Marcus Hook complex.

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