Imports will play an increasingly important role in U.S. natural gas supplies.
 

Gas storage plunged from 738 bcf in March 2001 to a record low of 623 bcf March this year. In the northeast U.S., inventories at their nadir held just three days of supply, Nome said.
Like other analysts, Nome expects gas prices to spike again this summer
"It's not a matter of 'if' but 'when,'" she said.
 

Think the summer season will bring lower natural gas prices? Guess again.
Tight supplies of the commodity are threatening to keep prices high. People here in central Carolina may experience sticker shock well into the upcoming heating season.
 

"Working gas in storage is . . . at extremely low levels,'' Greenspan testified, "and the normal seasonal rebuilding of these inventories seems to be behind the schedule.''
 

Gas inventories are 38 percent below the average for the past five years, drained by last winter's heavy demands for the fuel and stagnant gas production.
 

Electricity customers will suffer, too, if severe heat waves strike this summer. More than 90 percent of the power plants built since the beginning of electricity deregulation in the late 1990s run on natural gas, and that is the primary fuel for producing peak power supplies when air-conditioning demand soars.
 

HELENA - NorthWestern Energy said Thursday it will ask the Public Service Commission to approve a 45 percent increase in natural gas rates for its customers.
 

The company, citing its own growing costs for securing natural gas, told the panel it will file a formal request on Monday, and wants to start collecting the increase in July.