On April 10, natural gas contracts for May delivery settled at $1.983 per million Btu, the lowest front-month level since January 2002. The price represented a slide downward of nearly 35%, year to date, and a drop of about 59% since last summer's $4.85 price, thus continuing the bottoming out (hopefully) of the current rollercoaster ride of gas prices.

A review of energy statistics can give us a look at the most notable highs and lows. To wit, a quick look at past prices reveals that on January 13, 1995, gas fell to a subterranean low of $1.32, but by December 13, 2005, it had risen to an eye-opening $15.38. Good times.

Yet, on January 28, 2002, the price plummeted again, this time to about $1.91. As a result, drillbits stopped turning and corporate cash reserves swirled down the drain.

The contributing factors for the current slide include the loss of demand due to above normal temperatures experienced across much of the nation, combined with abundant production and the lingering effects of the economic slump. Also, continued high levels of gas production have pushed storage levels to 61% above their five-year average, prompting some gas-storage facilities to refuse further injections into their caverns and traders to bid down futures.

Specifically, on April 6, the Energy Information Administration reported an 8 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of storage injection for the week, bringing total working gas in storage to 2,487 Bcf, or 888 Bcf above last year's level, representing a climb of some 55.5%.

But it could have been worse. The week's storage came below the Bloomberg "whisper" consensus estimate of a 19 Bcf injection, and below Credit Suisse's forecast of a 21 Bcf injection. Unsurprisingly, the eastern consuming region gained 471 Bcf, some 75.8% above last year, the west increased by 132 Bcf, about 59.7% above last year, and the producing region grew by 285 Bcf, about 37.6% above last year.

Meanwhile, statistics on the demand side in the U.S. show much room for improvement. To date, only some 34% of the nation's supply of gas is used for power, which represents about a third of the nation's power plants. Another 30% is used by industry to heat boilers and make chemicals, fertilizer and plastics. About 21% of the supply is used by residential consumers to heat homes and water, dry clothes and cook. Nearly 14% is used in office buildings, restaurants and shops.

And the leftover, about 0.1%, powers trucks, buses and other vehicles, although the recently announced collaboration by General Electric Co. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. to develop technology and equipment to lower costs for compressed- and liquefied-gas fueling stations, and thus accelerate gas as a transportation fuel, is a step in the right direction.

Low gas prices, while torturesome to natural gas producers, are cheered by consumers enjoying lower heating bills in the north and lower air-conditioning costs in the south, and by petchem companies eyeing less-costly natural gas liquids as a potential game-changer. In fact, by some accounts, the current and forecasted low prices could spur a renaissance of American manufacturing.

For now, analysts do not expect any immediate bounce in prices because further pricing pressure will increase as we head toward filling up the 4.2 trillion cubic feet of storage capacity. Over the longer term, however, market forces could take hold and help drive the supply-demand balance to more normal levels.

Oil and gas industry old-timers (and coal-fired power generators) are not at all surprised at the rollercoaster nature of energy-commodity prices, and know that with volatility comes opportunity. For upstreamers, the price brings an impetus for rig relocations to oil and liquids plays. For midstreamers, the price drop pushes regional requirements for new and enhanced infrastructure to support the liquids plays. And for downstreamers, the price makes domestic refining and petrochemical feedstock cheaper so the industries can be more competitive in the world market.

And lastly, Moody's like midstreamers. According to Pete Speer, vice president of Moody's Analystics Inc., "We see midstream sector capital spending increasing by over 60% in 2012, as companies try to meet the strong demand for new infrastructure."