Gas Production hasn't kept pace with surging demand in recent months, analysts said. Supplies may fall to a record 600 billion cubic feet by the end of the heating season, said Marshall Steeves, an analyst with Refco Group Ltd. in New York.
``There's no gas, and it doesn't look like there's going to be any anytime soon,'' said Brad Florer, a trader with APB Energy Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. ``Until that issue gets resolved, no one knows'' what inventories in coming months will be, he said.
The U.S. had about 3.2 trillion cubic feet of gas at the beginning of this winter, government records show. That's considered sufficient to meet winter demand and was higher than in several past years, analysts said.
``What this winter showed us is you can never have enough storage,'' said Bill O'Grady, director of fundamental futures research at A.G. Edwards Inc. in St. Louis. ``The supply situation took longer to become critical because we had more inventory.''
From Bloomberg Energy, March 14 |
