Natural gas inventories in the United States are projected to be below average when the country starts to need heat for winter, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The EIA’s weekly report on natural gas storage, released Aug. 12, shows that the United States currently has over 2.7 trillion cubic feet of working gas in underground storage across the lower 48 states. This represents a decrease of 16.5 percent from 3.3 trillion cubic feet of gas at the same time last year. The EIA has projected that by Nov. 1, when winter heating season starts, the country will have just under 3.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in storage—159 billion cubic feet lower than the average over the past five years. “U.S. production of dry natural gas has remained relatively flat, averaging 91.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) so far in 2021 (January–July), 0.4 Bcf/d below the …