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Are We Running Out Of Room For Natural Gas?

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

A drilling rig platform in Susquehanna County


We’ve spent a lot of time discussing the financial implications of the domestic natural gas drilling boom. Turns out, there are physical, geological implications, too, as the AP reports:

Too 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, depleted oil fields and aquifers 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.

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