A nasty blizzard hit the East Coast after Christmas. But for the region's propane supply, it was business as usual. (image: raelala via flickr.com)
At the end of December, the Northeast was slammed by an after-Christmas blizzard. In New York City, which Propane.pro calls home, it was the sixth-largest snowfall on record. And the weather was nasty from Philly to Boston.
So we were curious to see how the big snowstorm affected the already tight northeastern propane inventory. And now that the numbers are out for the last week of the year, we have our answer: Just business as usual this hard-burning December.
From Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve, propane supplies in the Mid-Atlantic — where the storm did its worst — dropped about 200,000 barrels to end the year at 1.58 million barrels, according to federal data. That amounts to a 12-percent drop, but matches the week-to-week drawdowns since the beginning of December. That blizzard hardly registered.
Still, it’s been a lean season for the Central Atlantic, where propane stocks are about 75-percent of what they were at the end of last year. Though around the country, reserves are within the average range — and up about 3 million barrels compared to last year’s marks.