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Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said Wednesday the company would keep 1 Bcf/d of gross natural gas production, or about 15% of total output, curtailed through October.

Unusually warm winter weather and the ongoing production boom from the nation’s shale plays will help keep natural gas spot prices down in 2012, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) said in separate reports Monday.

Although emphasizing its utility assets more in recent years, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. has found new life in its oil/gas exploration and production (E&P) unit with the advent of the Mancos shale play in the Piceance and San Juan basins, CEO Dave Emery recently told an energy financial audience in Orlando, FL.

If operators and service companies want to succeed in shale plays, they should keep an eye on state regulators, even in states far from where they plan to operate, “simply because those regulations tend to get passed around,” said a contractor active in shale.

Continued production growth and new pipelines connecting producing areas to consumers have helped keep natural gas prices low, despite a 2.6% increase in demand this year, and market conditions going into the winter are generally positive, according to FERC’s Office of Enforcement (OE).

Natural gas production from the nation’s shale plays now accounts for more than one-quarter of U.S. production, compared with 5% in 2007, and is helping to keep gas prices among the lowest in a decade, according to FERC’s Office of Enforcement (OE).

Continued production growth and new pipelines connecting producing areas to consumers have helped keep natural gas prices low, despite a 2.6% increase in demand this year, and market conditions going into the winter are generally positive, according to FERC’s Office of Enforcement (OE).

An interior oil and natural gas supply glut, the result of strong output from shales and tight oil and gas plays, is developing because infrastructure can’t keep up, and that in turn is pressuring prices, according to Canaccord Genuity.

A sluggish economy and warmer weather, coupled with an increase in production, will likely keep natural gas prices flat for the 2011-2012 winter season, the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) said.