Summer Natural Gas Outlook
Natural gas is facing increasing demand heading into summer from industrial reshoring, growing electric power requirements, heightened demand for LNG exports in the face of the Iran conflict and overall customer growth. Natural gas supply is rising to meet that demand with production at an all-time high and projections showing commodity prices relatively low and stable into the future. While a rising CPI shows that consumers are facing a pinch driven by other goods and services, natural gas provides American families with an affordability advantage at costs three to five times lower than electric rates. Natural gas has proven its resilience over the winter, meeting record sustained demand during winter storm Fern and remaining insulated from global energy market price spikes during the Iran conflict. The key to maintaining system reliability and price stability as demand continues to grow will be ensuring a policy environment where pipeline and storage infrastructure growth can keep up.