Domestic US Natural Gas Supply - Dipping into the 21st Century

MywestTexas.com has some strong opinions on how to keep the price of natural gas from going through highs and lows in the pricing volatility; they write that obviously, one way to stem this trend in prices would be to increase supply. They believe that this could theoretically be done through one of two means, domestic production could increase, but despite the drilling rig count more than doubling between 2001 and now, domestic gas production has actually declined.

The second way, therefore, maintaining U.S. production -- let alone increasing production -- is becoming increasingly difficult and United States experts expect this trend will continue. In order to offset domestic supply constraints, the U.S. market is increasingly reliant on imported gas, which brings us to our second method to increase supply.

Similar to the United States, Canada's natural gas production also peaked earlier this decade. Because of this and more natural gas being diverted from the export market for use in crude production at Canadian tar sands, they think piped exports to the U.S. will remain stable but slowly decrease in the coming years.

Therefore, the U.S. must continue to seek other supplies. Unconventional gas supplies (shale gas, coal bed methane, etc.) are projected by the Energy Information Administration as the only source of supply growth in the lower 48 states through the first quarter of this century.