edatoakrun
Well-known member
Have to say this is a positive development overall, as this should result in lower electricity prices and accelerate the switch away from much more expensive and (by most accounts) more polluting hydrocarbons, such as coal and ICEV fuels derived from oil.
I wonder what the political fallout will be, If “big Gas” moves to build large-scale export facilities, to deliver American natural gas to more lucrative foreign markets?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204720204577130482684060876.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I wonder what the political fallout will be, If “big Gas” moves to build large-scale export facilities, to deliver American natural gas to more lucrative foreign markets?
...Prices for the commodity have been under pressure over the last couple of years, as new drilling techniques unlocked vast new stores of natural gas from shale formations and other so-called unconventional reservoirs.
But in the last two months, the steady price decline has turned into a free-fall, as unusually mild temperatures across much of the U.S. have damped demand for gas to heat homes and offices.
Natural gas for February delivery settled Friday at $2.989 per million British thermal units, the lowest closing price for the commodity since September 2009. It closed below $3 in the winter for the first time in nearly a decade.
"The sub-$3 levels for gas prices in the winter really point to the incredible amount of nonconventional gas that has come onto the market the last two years," said Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Conn. "Our production levels, our mild winter and the gas we have in storage have combined to crush natural gas prices this month."
Natural gas traded as high as $13 per million British thermal units in July 2008. But in recent years, domestic production boomed, with horizontal drilling techniques and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," helping producers unleash a flood of gas from shale formations in Pennsylvania, Arkansas and elsewhere.
Natural gas production in the lower 48 states hit a record 71.3 billion cubic feet a day in October, the U.S. Department of Energy said this week.
The bonanza has ushered in lower prices for many consumers and businesses. New Jersey's Public Service Electric and Gas Co., citing lower costs partly due to shale drilling, reduced residential gas rates on Dec. 1 by 4.6%, bringing to 35% the utility's total decrease since January 2009...
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