HOUSTON, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Working gas storage in the contiguous United States was 2,501 billion cubic feet (70.8 billion cubic meters) in the week ending Aug. 5, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Thursday in a report.
Despite a net increase of 44 billion cubic feet (1.2 billion cubic meters) from the previous week, the total working gas storage decreased by 9.7 percent from a year ago, or down by 11.9 percent above the 5-year average, according to the EIA's Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report.
The U.S. storage of working gas usually turns to decrease in November and continues to drop in April when heating season ends in the country, previous data shows.
Working gas is defined as the amount of natural gas stored underground that can be withdrawn for use. Its storage capacity can be measured in two ways: design capacity and demonstrated maximum working gas capacity.
The contiguous United States consists of the 48 adjoining states of the country, plus the District of Columbia, and excludes the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii, and all off-shore insular areas. ■