Show Natural Gas Good he course of the past the nation was to the threat of a ute shortage of heating A in scattered in- no really fc crisis developed a generally open Relatively mild winter in infections of the country By consuming large fes of heating some in dI low-priority fuel such as industrial some utility and plants able to Ha natural or of natural terms merely Kd in the use of But at least for Hi more years the a fuel crisis will be HE thick of the fight to the energy shor-Lawt can no longer be off as an easily problem-are the gas and those in the end of the enough to take efforts to generate P gas supplies from lj power-producing and g natural gas in preference its low-pollution In it jf to handle and is ex- V gh in energy con- j RECENT years the i gas reserves in this v 7 nave been steadily J Therefore it is to note the steps taken tn reverse this Search Tor 71 is being en- a widening JJ more emphasis is V jp l quite the f natural gas industry of the fuel t weapon was r so the price of natural gas has been kept inordinately low even though the cost of exploring and developing new reserves has WHILE somewhat higher wellhead prices have helped in the past few further substantial gains are needed to spur the research for new supplies and make feasible the tapping of reserves now being found in the Canadian arctic the dwindling reserves in this country are limiting the ability of natural gas wholesalers and retailers to take on new there has been a scramble for fresh THE LARGER companies in the field are trying to augment present supplies by participation in exploration ventures either independently or with other Some are furnishing capital to finance exploration and with venture capital sometimes sought under the so-called tax-shelter According to government and private there are many gas reserves yet to be discovered both on land and Much of this will be 4 costly to and environ- T mental protection groups are J making it increasingly dif- for exploration and j development efforts to be carried out as rapidly as the i fuel shortage 4 IT IS estimated that large caches of natural gas lie off the eastern coast of the but protests are already strong against plans to search for and tap such offshore 4 J The recent publicity over the threat Df a fuel shortage caused many major natural gas stocks to the inimical atmosphere of the stock market has since i offset a good part of these the Research Department oT Babson's Reports currently favors purchase of American Na- tural Gas and Northern Natural Gas for income and capital The growth-oriented investor may also find Tenneco or the more speculative Texas I Oil and i |