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In a state that historically has liked its electricity supplies coal-based to match one of its most abundant native resources, Utah’s energy picture is increasingly becoming a stew complete with increased natural gas, oil, geothermal, solar and even some visions of a first-in-the-state nuclear generation plant. The state Division of Oil, Gas and Mining earlier this summer confirmed that record natural gas and oil production is showing up in Utah.

In a state that historically has liked its electricity supplies coal-based to match one of its most abundant native resources, Utah’s energy picture is increasingly becoming a stew complete with increased natural gas, oil, geothermal, solar and some visions of even a first-in-the-state nuclear generation plant. The state Divison of Oil, Gas and Mining earlier this summer confirmed that record natural gas and oil production is showing up in Utah.

The bulls within the natural gas futures market received some much-needed support Wednesday as the weather picture got a whole lot more interesting with three separate weather systems forming in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. As a result, October natural gas punched higher, recording a high of $6.470 late in the session before closing out the day at $6.438, up 50.4 cents from Tuesday.

Despite the moderating tropical weather picture, Raymond James analyst J. Marshall Adkins said the natural gas bulls have room to roam if the BTU-parity price ratio between natural gas and oil is a valid indicator. The analyst is expecting a full-year 2006 price of $7.54/MMBtu and a full-year 2007 price of $10/MMBtu.

With domestic onshore natural gas drilling on the rise, the U.S. supply picture should be on the upswing, with production growing slightly less than 1 Bcf/d in the next couple of years. However, the onshore drilling gains have been “largely offset” by modest weakness in offshore production, lower Canadian imports and the continuing long-term trend of increasing exports to both Canada and Mexico, an energy analyst said last week.

Domestic onshore natural gas drilling is on the rise, and the U.S. supply picture should be a bright spot, with production growing slightly less than 1 Bcf/d in the next couple of years. However, the onshore drilling gains have been “largely offset” by modest weakness in offshore production, lower Canadian imports and the continuing long-term trend of increasing exports to both Canada and Mexico, according to a top energy analyst.

Despite the drilling progress that has been made and the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals that have been planned, the gas supply picture remains uncertain, and over the next few years natural gas markets can expect continued price volatility, speakers at GasMart 2006 said Thursday. LNG supply will remain tight until the end of the decade, and Gulf of Mexico, unconventional onshore and LNG resources all will be needed to meet growing industrial and power generation demand.

The cold front that moved into the Midwest and East last week proved to be pivotal for the natural gas storage picture as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Wednesday that 8 Bcf was withdrawn from natural gas stores for the week ended Nov. 18. The first withdrawal of the season was seen as bullish when compared to a majority of the industry’s expectations. However, on weak pre-vacation volume, the prompt month closed out the short week at $11.620, six-tenths of a cent higher on the day.

Most points rebounded strongly Monday as the Gulf Coast supply picture, while improving, remained rather gloomy and pockets of current or approaching cooling and heating load surfaced. A little bit of “storm hype” may also have been a factor, although Tropical Storm Stan was projected to move into southern Mexico without threatening any U.S. energy facilities.