U.S. Natural Gas Markets: Recent Trends and Prospects for the Future

摘要

Natural gas prices rose dramatically in 2000 and have remained high through the first part of 2001. High prices have raised concerns about the longer term prospects for natural gas prices and their potential impact on consumers and on economic growth. Exacerbating those concerns are the current low levels of natural gas supply in storage. The central questions addressed in this report are 'Why have natural gas prices risen so high and so quickly' and 'What is the outlook for the U.S. natural gas market in the short and mid-term.' Natural gas represented 24 percent of the energy consumed and 27 percent of the energy produced in the United States in 2000. The industrial sector was the largest user of natural gas-for cogeneration of electric power and as an industrial feedstock. In addition, natural gas is the largest energy source consumed in the residential sector and the fastest growing energy source for electricity generation. In recent months, the high prices of natural gas used in the industrial, residential and commercial, and electricity generation sectors have caused exceptional public concern about the present and future operations of the natural gas industry and markets. The recent high prices have also prompted some policymakers to question whether natural gas can play a dominant role in fueling U.S. economic growth in the next 20 years. These concerns led Secretary Spencer Abraham to request that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) assess the recent trends in the U.S. natural gas market that led to high natural gas prices and evaluate the implications of those trends for the short- and mid-term outlook.