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Natural gas prices of $6/Mcf or less are not a short-term market aberration, but rather will be around for awhile, a Bentek Energy executive said last week.

Natural gas prices of $6/Mcf or less are not a short-term market aberration, but rather will be around for awhile, a Bentek Energy executive said Tuesday.

Demand, rather than supply, will challenge North American natural gas markets over the coming decade, according to a Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) multi-client study.

It’s not a question of “if” but rather “when” the market will see sub-$3/Mcf natural gas, Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts said in a research note last week in which they took a bow for calling the bear market early and predicted more pain to come for gas producers.

It’s not a question of “if” but rather “when” the market will see sub-$3/Mcf natural gas, Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts said in a Monday research note in which they took a bow for calling the bear market early and predicted more pain to come for gas producers.

With U.S. natural gas production on track to grow at least 3.6% in 2008 versus a year ago, producers won’t be able to lay down rigs fast enough to offset the unprecedented growth and thus face a “high possibility” of forced shut-ins and regional basis blowouts next summer, Raymond James & Associates Inc. reported Monday.

Equitable Resources Inc. denied reports that it was pulling out of the Northeast Passage pipeline project, but rather said it merely has altered its game plan to get its Appalachian natural gas to market.

It would be less expensive and less carbon-intensive to get additional future natural gas supplies via interstate pipelines from the Rocky Mountains rather than imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to a recent report from the Oregon Department of Energy. Rockies supplies can be produced with significantly less life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) impact than gas from LNG imports, said the report, which was ordered by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

A key factor contributing to greater revenues to the state of Alaska under TransCanada Corp.’s TC Alaska mega-pipeline proposal rather than a competing proposal advanced by major producers is that the producer plan financing is expected to be based on a higher level of equity requiring higher transportation rates and lower netback and royalty payments, according to the analysis and determination issued last Tuesday by state Commissioners of Natural Resources and Revenue.