RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
In his State of the Union speech, President Obama promised to increase development of natural gas. One technique to get that gas from underground rock has drawn plenty of criticism. Hydraulic fracturing uses fluid to push up the gas, something that concerns environmentalists. Whatever its drawbacks, it's becoming clear that fracking, as it's called, is producing a lot of natural gas. As NPR's Christopher Joyce reports, maybe too much.
CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE: Fracking was once a small part of the natural gas industry, a technique to get hard-to-reach deposits in underground shale. Then the technology improved, and the dinner bell rang. Everybody wanted in. Now there's so much gas on the market that the price is at a 10-year low. Michael Kehs is vice president of Chesapeake Energy, one of the biggest shale gas producers.
MICHAEL KEHS: A boom has only occurred over the last few years, and the market at first wasn't sure that it was real. But it is so real that's it's actually depressing prices, and the view is that the price is going to remain low for a number of years going forward.
JOYCE: In fact, companies are storing a lot of gas instead of selling it. And now Chesapeake is pulling back from some wells. The company is moving half its drilling rigs from wells that produce dry gas - the stuff you use in your stove or water heater. Instead, they'll drill in places where there's also wet gas, stuff like ethylene, propylene and butadiene. These are mostly used to make plastic or textiles and they bring a higher price. Some of these wells also produce oil, also pricey right now. Economist Sara Banaszak of the trade group America's Natural Gas Alliance says other energy companies are doing the same, but they aren't likely to abandon shale gas.
SARA BANASZAK: Companies that are here to produce natural gas are here for the long term. You know, there are, you know, micro-adjustments in the path along the way, but I think they've made their investments and they're going to pursue that path.
JOYCE: Banaszak says fracking operations are pretty flexible.
BANASZAK: One thing that is good about a lot of the unconventional production is the ability to sort of scale it up and down with changes in demand and supply.
JOYCE: For Chesapeake's Michael Kehs, it's a matter of waiting for more people - electric utilities or factories - to move to gas power.
KEHS: You know, it's almost like the shale "Field of Dreams." You know, we've built it, and now the demand will come.
JOYCE: A warm winter has also kept prices down, but analysts at the federal Energy Information Agency say low prices could last for years, which could boost demand eventually. If it doesn't, there's already talk in the industry about liquefying America's surplus gas and exporting it overseas. Christopher Joyce, NPR News.