The Natural Gas Supply Association reports U.S. producers responding to its 1993 deliverability survey used 92.6% of their field capacity to deliver gas to the marketplace last year, up from 88% in 1992.
Domestic producers represented in the preliminary survey increased their productive capacity 2.5% during 1993-to 30.6 bcfd from 29.9 bcfd. They said they could feasibly deliver gas equal to 94% of their capacity.
NGSA Chairman Robert Hauptfuhrer said, "This year's deliverability survey confirms that natural gas producers, like other competitive business people, are continuing to seek a close balance between supply and demand, a trend we reported last year.
"The inventory surplus, or 'gas bubble,' that has plagued our industry for over a decade is now very small."
Unused field capacity shrank from 7.4 percentage points reported in the 1991 survey to 1.4 percentage points in 1993.
"At the same time," Hauptfuhrer said, "the numbers appear to indicate producer optimism about the future. Study participants increased both connected and unconnected capacity, allowing them to respond quickly to future demand growth."
ESTIMATING SUPPLY
Hauptfuhrer, who also is Oryx Energy Co. chairman and chief executive officer, said producers have increased their ability to feasibly produce gas in a field because in the years of significant surplus, producers had little experience in making precise estimates of the maximum amount fields could produce.
"Today, however, there is considerable incentive to make accurate assessments of how soon new production may be brought on line."
He added, "The high demand we experienced last January may have given producers more direct field experience on which to base the feasible capacity number, thus refining the estimates previously available."
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