Douglas,
Natural gas is the future: clean, easy to maintain, domestic source, not vulnerable to OPEC's whims. I switched from oil to natural gas this February to avoid the environmental risk of my underground tank, hassle's with monitoring the tank levels (previous owner let it run dry and froze/burst the radiant pipes in the living room), and the regular maintenance that oil burners require. The installer, who did oil and gas burners, said that many people rarely service the gas burner it's so clean. Natural gas was a little higher cost this winter, but oil has bumped up 50-70% since then. A lot of people are switching for the same reasons when they have access to a mainline. We have a ton of new developments in our county, and they're all aiming to get natural gas if at all possible. With natural gas deregulation coming (here in Pennsylvania), this bias may accelerate. This is a long term trend IMHO.
PTEN looks to cash in on Natural Gas drilling, higher oil prices, and it's domestic situation not being hamstrung by OPEC cutbacks. It was road kill until this Spring, but now it's in the sweet spot with a stock performance better than most, recently.
Regards,
Richard |
