There’s more gloomy information on the Southcentral Alaska gas supply situation. Enstar Natural Gas Co. is about the begin 2013 with about 4.2 billion cubic feet of its gas requirement for the year unmet, meaning not under contract. Enstar’s total annual gas need is about 33 billion cubic feet, so this is a significant amount and the largest supply deficit the utility has ever had at the start of a year. Enstar’s gap grows to about 50 percent of its requirements by 2016. The electric utilities also see gas supply gaps out there. There are new gas wells coming on line, but they will not bring in enough supply to make a significant dent in the gap.

Will this make things worse? We hear one Beluga gas field owner is reluctant to fund its one-third share of the proposed $50 million 2013 capital budget for the field. These are funds needed for new wells and other work needed to keep the field operating at peak performance to produce gas.