(John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own) The United States is experiencing a structural increase in gas demand with more gas-fired power stations operating more hours per year and consuming a record volumes of gas. But domestic gas production is turning down, with output nearly 4 percent lower in July 2016 compared with July 2015 (“Falling U.S. gas output meets stronger demand”, Reuters, Oct 3). Growing demand for gas and shrinking supplies are not sustainable, so gas prices will have to rise to encourage more drilling and limit the use of some gas-fired power plants. U.S. power producers had 448 gigawatts of gas-fired generation capacity in July 2016, an increase of 25 gigawatts since the end of 2012, according to the Energy Information Administration ( tmsnrt.rs/2dOroBg ). Installed gas-fired capacity is scheduled to grow by another 11.5 gigawatts to 459 gigawatts by the […]