In this week's Market Movers Americas, presented by Mark Watson:
• Natural gas market eyes inventory levels
• Washington Carbon Market to release first revenue report
• Texas power stakeholders mull ‘bridge mechanism'
This week, natural gas traders will be keeping a close eye on the US Energy Information Administration's upcoming storage report. For the last several months, mild weather and weak heating demand have pushed US stocks to a massive surplus, which has pressured gas prices. The one outlier is the Pacific region, where stocks recently reached a record low, which boosted prices at SoCal city-gate and PG&E city-gate. In the past two weeks, though, colder weather has boosted US demand and could fuel an inventory draw of double or even triple the five-year average for the week ended March 24.
The Washington Department of Ecology will be releasing revenue results from its very first carbon auction, which took place in early March after the state legislature created the carbon trading program last year. Revenue from the auction is earmarked to fund climate projects across the state, targeting projects including clean transportation, climate resiliency and environmental justice.
In power, Electric Reliability Council of Texas market participants may know more by the end of the week about a "bridge mechanism" to boost reliability until long-term reforms are implemented. In a recent workshop, the most popular option among stakeholders was enhancing ERCOT's Operating Reserve Demand Curve, which generates a price adder that increases as reserves approach scarcity levels. ERCOT's top-level stakeholder committee will discuss options this week.
I'm Mark Watson. Thanks for kicking off your Monday with S&P Global Commodity Insights.