Quote from retaildaytrader:
In 2000 and 2002, bottoms in natural gas were associated with gas rig counts in the low 600s. That was 7 years ago and the population of the United States has expanded by 8.5%. There has been a lot of construction that has taken place.
The current rig count stands at 699 with the lowest in July at 675.
While there is lots of supply of natural gas, I cant see how that supply can expand with the rig count numbering in the 600s which was just enough to support a population that was 8.5% lower.
Also, what say you about the current contango situation?
A lot of people have been calling the technical bounce and short covering rally that we have seen in NG over the last week.
I like this link here as a great explanation of the number of rigs vs life cycle and decline of production of NG
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5323
Basically last year we saw a 7% increase in the amount of NG produced w/ 1500 rigs drilling. (note 7% increase in gas, almost the 8.5% increase you were talking about)
Theres a 25% depletion rate each year. So to get that increase of 7% we actually increased production by 32%
So if the amount of rigs drops to 700 from 1500 you'll see roughly a 50% decline in the amount of gas were able to replace from drilling.
So currently we are only replacing 16% of the NG, and we are depleting at 25%. This means we are currently losing 9% of the NG production at the current rig count.
So were down 9%. But were actually up 7%. So were really only down 2%.
This doesn't factor in LNG, or imports from Canada.
Now add in the effect of the economy in the crapper. How much reduction in demand does that account for? 5%? 10%?
Not hard to imagine we are still in an easy surplus production situation.
But then again, maybe people will be running their AC & Heaters more because gas prices are down?? We'll see.