GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Regulatory Agencies
EEI: Edison Electric Institute
EIA: U.S. Energy Information Administration
EPA: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
IEA: International Energy Agency
FERC: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
NERC: North American Electric Reliability Commission
NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NWS: National Weather Service
Natural Gas and Electricity
12-month strip: the average price of the next twelve months' worth of futures contracts.
Backwardation: when the futures price of natural gas is trading below the expected spot price at contract maturity.
Contango: when the futures price of natural gas is higher than the expected spot price. Opposite of backwardation.
CNG: Compressed Natural Gas; methane stored at high pressure, used in place of gasoline, diesel fuel and propane.
Front-month contract: the first available futures contract.
Haynesville: a mostly dry-gas shale formation that extends under much of southwestern Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and East Texas. Second highest gas production per rig in U.S.
Henry Hub: a distribution hub on the natural gas pipeline system in Louisiana. A NYMEX or ICE gas futures contract is for a spot transaction of 10,000 MMBtu at Henry Hub.
ISO: An Independent System Operator that operates a U.S. region's electricity grid, administers the region's wholesale electricity markets, and provides reliability planning for the region's bulk electricity system. Major ISOs are ERCOT, CAISO, PJM, NYISO, MISO, and ISO-NE.
LNG: Liquefied Natural Gas; predominantly methane that has been converted to liquid form. Uses about 1/600th the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state.
Marcellus: a mostly dry-gas shale formation that extends under much of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York (which has a ban on fracking). Highest natural gas production per rig in U.S.
MMBtu: million British Thermal Units.
Natural gas storage: most commonly held underground under pressure in three types of facilities: (1) depleted reservoirs in oil and/or gas fields, (2) aquifers, and (3) salt cavern formations. It is also stored as liquefied natural gas (LNG) in above-ground tanks.
NYMEX: New York Mercantile Exchange, a commodity futures exchange owned by CME Group of Chicago.
NYMEX natural gas (NG): a national benchmark for natural gas. Natural gas contracts are priced in U.S. dollars and cents per MMBtu, and are for 10,000 MMBtu.
PUC: Public Utilities Commission
RTO: A Regional Transmission Organization that has similar responsibilities to an ISO, with greater accountability for the transmission network as established by FERC.
Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report: EIA's weekly published data of working gas in underground storage, lower 48 states. Released every Thursday.
Crude Oil and Petroleum Products
12-month strip: the average price of the next twelve months' worth of futures contracts.
Backwardation: when the futures price of oil is trading below the expected spot price at contract maturity.
Bakken: shale play that produced 10%+ of U.S. oil in 2013, located mostly under Montana and North Dakota. Second highest oil production per rig in U.S.
Barrel: the crude oil contract unit – 1,000 U.S. barrels (42,000 gallons).
Brent crude (BZ): the European crude oil benchmark used for global purchases; also known as BFOE (Brent Blend, Forties Blend, Oseberg and Ekofisk). Priced in U.S. dollars and cents per barrel.
Cushing: the world's largest oil storage facility, crude oil trading hub and refining center, in Oklahoma; the price settlement point for NYMEX crude (WTI).
Contango: when the futures price of crude oil is higher than the expected spot price. Opposite of backwardation.
Eagle Ford: most active shale play in the world, located under south Texas and Louisiana. Highest oil production per rig in U.S.
Front-month contract: the first available futures contract.
Light Louisiana Sweet (LLS): crude oil rising in importance as a secondary benchmark supplementing the traditional benchmark WTI.
NYMEX: New York Mercantile Exchange, a commodity futures exchange owned by CME Group of Chicago.
NYMEX crude (CL): the North American crude oil benchmark (Light Sweet Crude); also known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI). Crude oil contracts are priced in U.S. dollars and cents per barrel, and are for 1,000 U.S. barrels.
RBOB: a derivative of crude oil (Reformulated gasoline Blend-stock for Oxygen Blending) and the benchmark gasoline.
ULSD: (ultra-low-sulfur diesel) a diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur content. Almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in North America, Europe and the UK is ULSD.
Weekly Petroleum Status Report: EIA's petroleum supply situation in the context of historical information and selected prices. Released every Wednesday.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI): the North American crude oil benchmark; also called NYMEX crude.
