Natural gas lull unlikely to last

With the price of natural gas at its lowest level in more than a year, the industry that supplies this mostly domestic fuel has a message for consumers: Don’t get used to it. After a warm winter that sapped home-heating demand, U.S. natural gas inventories have bulged to record springtime levels, and that has caused prices to fall roughly 60 percent since their mid-December high. Many analysts anticipate a further swelling of inventories in the months ahead and say prices are susceptible to another 20 percent decline.

If it is an unusually hot summer, association president Skip Horvath said, homeowners will crank up their air conditioners, which suck up lots of gas-fired electricity. If there is a repeat of last summer’s ferocious Gulf of Mexico hurricane season, significant volumes of offshore natural gas production could be lost.

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