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Where natural gas prices are concerned, last year’s “worst case” (gas below $3/Mcf) is this year’s “reality,” and the outlook for the net 12-24 months is “exceedingly ugly,” according to the buzz at Raymond James & Associates Inc.’s recent Institutional Investors Conference.

In the space of six years, shale gas development has turned the U.S. energy world upside down, driving natural gas prices well below the $15/Mcf levels they reached following Gulf of Mexico hurricanes in 2005, former FERC Commissioner Marc Spitzer said Wednesday in a webcast interview on the industry program “OnPoint.”

El Paso warned of possibly needing to declare a Strained Operating Condition, citing high linepack due to actual delivery takes being below scheduled quantities and receipts from supply basins in excess of scheduled volumes. The Washington Ranch storage facility is making maximum injections, El Paso said. It encouraged delivery point operators to take gas according to their scheduled quantities and receipt point operators to reduce and/or maintain deliveries into the system at their scheduled rates. Additionally, imbalance paybacks to the system will not be accepted as long as the high-linepack condition remains.

El Paso warned shippers of a potential Strained Operating Condition (SOC) being declared due to high linepack caused by actual takes below scheduled deliveries and supply basin receipts in excess of scheduled volumes. The Washington Range storage facility is in maximum injection mode, El Paso said, and it has contacted two points about their actual takes versus scheduled volumes and the possibility of them being subjected to a location-specific SOC.

With temperatures below freezing from the Rockies into Western Canada and a snowstorm in much of the Rockies being supplemented by 30s lows in much of the Midwest and falling mercury in the Northeast, it was hardly surprising to see cash prices extend their gains Wednesday. The previous day’s futures gain of 5.4 cents also was a bullish factor.

At the halfway point through the injection season, working natural gas inventories for the Lower 48 states as of July 15 were about 7.4% below the level for the same period last year due to more nuclear outages and increased air conditioning use resulting from warmer-than-normal weather, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. In a separate report, the EIA said that coal is losing its generation market share to natural gas.

At the halfway point through the injection season, working natural gas inventories for the Lower 48 states as of July 15 were about 7.4% below the level for the same period last year due to more nuclear outages and increased air conditioning use resulting from warmer-than-normal weather, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

The economic benefits of developing shale natural gas resources in the state of New York are “enormous” and vastly outweigh the “small” environmental costs, according to a new report by the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Energy Policy and The Environment.

It’s well documented by now that due to low natural gas prices a number of producers and oilfield service companies have been switching drilling efforts and asset buildup from the primarily dry gas Haynesville to “wetter” [that is, richer in crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL)] plays such as the Eagle Ford and Marcellus. But quite a few in the industry see Haynesville as remaining a strong shale resource and eventually strengthening. It may take a few years, but many expect gas prices to eventually begin making up for ground lost to the soaring crude market.