Natural Gas Prices React To Inventory Decline: Low coal Prices undercut gas demand for power generation

摘要

A colder winter has contributed to higher U.S. natural gas prices, as more methane was withdrawn from storage than during the previous two winters. At the end of April, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that working natural gas in storage had dipped 31% to 0.8 Tcf (2.3 × 10~(10) m~3) from April 2012 and was 10% under the five-year average at 0.2 Tcf (5.7 × 10~9m~3). The increase in gas prices to US$4.40/MMBtu as the heating season stretched into April was an encouraging sign for the gas compression industry. The EIA said gas supplies exceeded demand for the entire year of 2012 until December. But from December 2012 through April of this year, supply has been short of consumption.