Underpinned

A supply-constrained natural gas market, which intensified competition between industrial and power generation consumers, has underpinned the current high gas price environment, but weaker winter demand, repairs to Gulf of Mexico infrastructure and growth in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports may drop gas prices to $6.50/MMBtu prices by the middle of 2006, according to a report by the Gerdes Group, an energy consulting firm based in Houston.