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Bucking the trend of rising energy prices for manufacturers, a surge in domestic natural gas production from shale formations resulted in a 36% decrease in the average gas price paid by manufacturers between 2006 and 2010, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Nationally physical gas prices fell a nickel on average for the week ended Sept. 13. Gains were largely limited to the Northeast and the majority of points fell anywhere from a few pennies to double digits. Deliveries to the Algonquin Citygates were the week’s largest gain at 45 cents to $4.23 and the greatest declines were seen on El Paso S Mainline at 20 cents to $3.81.

EOG Resources Inc. CEO William Thomas said the unconventional natural gas drilling pioneer plans to keep its onshore oil and liquids drilling strong but would “grow gas again” beginning in 2014. Plans to sell more of the company’s dry gas inventory also has been postponed.

A reclassification of “base” gas to “working” and a cooler-than-expected August make for an end-of-injection season storage forecast that is 20 Bcf higher than the one issued last month in the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the agency said last week.

ConocoPhillips’ chief analyst/strategist last week told an industry audience in Chicago that there will be no major hurricanes through the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) or elsewhere in the United States this year.

With its “confidence level” higher than ever, Dominion Resources Inc. is rounding up its Appalachian-driven natural gas assets and forming a partnership that initially could generate up to $2 billion a year in earnings, CEO Tom Farrell said Thursday.

Overall physical natural gas prices averaged a nickel gain in Tuesday trading for Wednesday delivery. The overall market strength, however, was characterized by wide swings with points in the Northeast adding more than a dollar, and locations in the infrastructure-challenged Marcellus dropping more than a quarter.

If U.S. natural gas supplies are going to find a market, increased gas-fired power generation on both sides of the border with Mexico and a number of forgotten heavy industries are going to have to soak up huge chunks of the additional output from shales, according to energy analysts who appeared on a supply-demand panel at the LDC Gas Forum Mid-Continent meeting Monday in Chicago.

For the week ended Sept. 6 the national physical gas average price was $3.65, up 11 cents. Most market points — with the exception of a handful of spots in the Northeast, Midwest, and Midcontinent — added a dime or more.