Oil prices inched higher most of the day but retreated in late trading May 22, with crude down 1% in the New York market among festering financial problems in the Euro-zone.

Natural gas prices are expected to hover below $3/MMbtu for 6-24 months, primarily bouncing between $1.75/MMbtu and $2.50/MMbtu, David Cunningham, managing director of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., told a Mayer Brown LLP energy conference on May 23.

Billions of dollars will be needed to build additional pipelines, terminals, and storage facilities to bring new US oil and natural gas resources to market, experts said on May 21 during Deloitte LLP’s 2012 Washington Energy Conference.

A rebound in the broader market help lift energy prices with the soon-to-expire front-month crude contract climbing 1.2% May 21 in the New York market.

Commodity and equity markets generally declined May 18 among global concerns over sluggish economies and the seemingly inevitable exit of Greece from the Euro-zone.

Production from unconventional liquids plays could result in the US becoming independent from oil imports before 2020, an analyst told attendees at an International Association of Drilling Contractors conference on onshore drilling.

While total US demand for oil products dipped in April, gasoline demand climbed almost 1% from a year earlier to average 8.842 million b/d, according to the latest monthly statistical report from the American Petroleum Institute.

Energy prices continued to spiral downward with crude slipping 0.3% May 17 in the New York futures market as the European Central Bank halted loans to banks in Greece, bringing the Euro-zone a step closer to possible break up.

Oil prices continued their downhill slide May 16 with front-month crude down 1.3% in the New York futures market because of what analysts in the Houston office of Raymond James & Associates Inc. described as “the darkened outlook in Europe.”

Oil prices fell May 15 in the New York market as benchmark US crude came under heavy selling pressure from the economic and political turmoil in Europe that also undermined the equity market.

The drop in energy prices accelerated May 14 in a broad market selloff after political parties in Greece failed to form a new coalition government over the weekend.

After a 1-day break in the recent losing streak, oil prices retreated again May 11 because of continued economic and political turmoil in Europe, the weakening euro, and less-than-expected growth in China’s industrial production and power output, among other issues.