Natural Gas Glut Means Drilling Must Slow

NEW YORK (AP) – The U.S. natural gas market is bursting at the

seams.

So much natural gas is being produced that soon there may be

nowhere left to put the country’s swelling surplus. After years of

explosive growth, natural gas producers are retrenching.

The underground salt caverns and depleted oil fields that store

natural gas are rapidly filling up after a balmy winter depressed

demand for home heating.

The glut has benefited businesses and homeowners that use

natural gas. But with natural gas prices at a 10-year low – and

falling – companies that produce the fuel are becoming victims of

their drilling successes. Their stock prices are falling in

anticipation of declining profits and scaled-back growth plans.

Some of the nation’s biggest natural gas producers, including

Chesapeake Energy, ConocoPhillips and Encana Corp., have announced

plans to slow down.