Shale We Review the 2010s?

By Evelyn Teel and Jim McDonnell With the decade coming to a close, this is a perfect opportunity to look back at how the energy market has changed over the past ten years. It has certainly been a whirlwind ride, starting shortly after the 2008 stock market crash and continuing through the Great Recession and…

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These Are Days To Remember

Natural gas prices are really, really low in the wholesale market. The graph above shows daily natural gas prices traded at the Henry Hub, in dollars per million British thermal units ($/mmBtu), from January 1997 to today. Prices on the graph are in nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation. Natural gas prices have exhibited a…

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OFO (No Room at the Inn)

Huh? What does OFO mean? First, a step back. The US natural gas pipeline and distribution system can be thought of as a large container with producers injecting natural gas (supply) and customers withdrawing natural gas (demand). Last year, during 2011, the US consumed 24.4 trillion cubic feet (TCF ) of natural gas, or, on…

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Natural Gas Price Drivers

We have noted previously on this blog that natural gas prices have declined dramatically over the last three years. On January 19, 2012 the February futures contract settled at $2.32 per million Btus. This is lower than natural gas prices have been in a decade and we are in the winter heating season, a time…

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