Outlook for U.S. Gas Energy, Demand, and Competitiveness

Abstract The gas transmission and distribution industry believes that available supplies of gas energy will range from 23 to 31 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) by the year 2000, as conventional gas production is increasingly supplemented by supplies from supplemental and non-conventional sources. Under the right set of price and regulatory conditions, gas demand can increase in the traditional heating, industrial fuel and feestock applications, as well as in such new non-traditional uses as cogeneration, natural gas vehicles and select gas use with coal. Gas prices are rising rapidly enough under the existing law between now and 1985, so that concerns of a sudden price increase after deregulation in that year may be somewhat overstated -- as long as indefinite price escalators, take-or-pay, and other issues in gas purchase contracts are fully resolved beforehand.