At the midpoint of 2011, growing gas production continues to be the dominant factor in the U.S. natural gas market. Supply has shown consistent, even explosive growth over the last three to four years, and the gas shale revolution has continued to create a structural surplus in the U.S. gas market. This surplus is not a result of a cyclical downturn in demand or an onslaught of new LNG supply from new liquefaction capacity as is the situation in the rest of the world, but of an abundance of domestic production. This “game changer” that we first identified back in mid-2008 continues to shape the market, influencing prices and chasing away imports on both land and water and even replacing conventional production.
In the August 2011 issue of NG Market Notes, Director Gordon Pickering discusses the outlook for the natural gas market for the rest of the 2011 and beyond