On January 30 and 31, APGA held its Annual Gas Supply Conference in San Antonio, Texas. The conference was very well attended with approximately 80 APGA members in attendance. It began with a welcome from Brian Dove, CEO for the Cullman-Jefferson Counties Gas District and Chair of the APGA Gas Supply Committee. Participants then heard an outlook on gas supply from Jim Duncan, Chief Analyst & Commodity Market Strategist for ConnocoPhillips. James Hulse, Manager for Sales, Marketing and Business Development for CenterPoint Energy Mobile Energy Solutions, then discussed the role that mobile compressed natural gas (CNH) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) can play in helping natural gas systems address pipeline supply interruptions. Bill Cantrell, President & CEO of the Southern Gas Association, provided an update on a program his association, in conjunction with others, has developed to create “energy ambassadors” within gas utilities as a means to enhance and improve communications within a community on natural gas issues. The sessions of the day finished with presentations by Brad Maddox, Director of Drilling & Plugging Operations for EQT Corporation, and Nathan McMahan, Director, Unconventional Reservoirs Excellence for ConocoPhillips, which addressed improvements in the technology and efficiency of natural gas production. The day concluded with a networking reception.
Wednesday began with a presentation from Jim Choukas-Bradley, Partner for McCarter & English, and John E. Norman, Managing Director for Municipal Capital Markets Group, Inc., on a number of new developments related to natural gas prepays. During their presentation, they communicated that this is anticipated to be an active year for prepays. Adam Bednarczyk, Branch Chief for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Donnie Sharp, Senior Natural Gas Supply Coordinator for Huntsville Utilities, then provided an update on several issues related to natural gas hub liquidity. James P. Hatch, Vice President for Energy Vision LLC., then discussed carbon neutral natural gas and carbon offset markets. The conference ended with a presentation by Tony Cadorin, Energy Resources Coordinator for the City of Mesa’s natural gas and electric distribution utilities, who discussed demand modeling weather.
The APGA Gas Supply Conference is held annually in conjunction with the APGA Winter Board and Committee meetings. The conference provides public natural gas systems with a forum to learn more about natural gas supply while addressing current market changes and challenges. The conference focuses on available purchase alternatives for public natural gas systems and provides an overview of what the gas supply markets have in store for next year. Presentations from this year’s conference are available on the members-only portion of the APGA website at
www.apga.org/SanAntonio. The 2019 Gas Supply Conference is scheduled for January 29 and 30 in Cape Coral, Fla.
For questions on this article or the Gas Supply Conference, please contact Dave Schryver of APGA staff by email at
dschryver@apga.org or by phone at 202-464-2742.