“The federal Energy Information Administration
(EIA) has not released June storage totals in Pennsylvania, but national data
for May show the upward trend stretches across the country. At month’s
end, working natural gas inventories nationwide hit about 2.9 trillion
cubic feet, 31 percent higher than May 2011 levels, according to the
agency.

“That number is likely to swell to 4.2 trillion
cubic feet by autumn, up from 3.9 trillion cubic feet last year,
according to Bentek’s projections. Roberts estimated the national
storage capacity at 4.5 trillion cubic feet.

“Storage levels have been high since spring,
helped along by moderate winter temperatures that kept a lid on heating
fuel demands. Meanwhile, EIA data show natural gas production in
Pennsylvania has more than quadrupled since 2009.

“And “there’s still a lot of capacity that’s
been drilled and developed but is not online,” said Thomas Murphy,
co-director of the Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach and
Research. He pointed to state numbers, which show about half of the
Marcellus shale wells drilled in Pennsylvania are not yet feeding
pipelines.”