Fracking Leads to Natural Gas Price Drops

26 January 2012 - 5:00am

Fracking technology led to a gas boom--now there's so much gas available, that prices have dropped along with demand.

"Michael Kehs, vice president of Chesapeake Energy, one of the biggest shale gas producers, says 'the boom has only occurred over the last few years, and the market at first wasn't sure that it was real.' But now, he says, 'it is so real that's it's actually depressing prices, and the view is that the price will remain low for a number of years going forward.'"

Companies are storing gas and have nearly reached storage capacity, according to Christopher Joyce of NPR. In spite of the drop in demand drilling and fracking are likely here to stay as companies wait for electric utilities and factories to switch to natural gas power, according to Joyce.

Source: NPR, January 25, 2012
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