The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has posted its Short-Term Energy Outlook for May 2010, stating - among other things - that it:
[E]xpects total natural gas consumption to increase by 3.0 percent to 64.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2010 and decline by 0.4 percent in 2011 ***. Consumption growth in 2010 is led by the industrial and electric power sectors. Despite higher natural gas prices in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009, natural gas accounted for a slightly higher share of generation in the electric power sector. This gain in the natural gas share of electric-power-sector generation is expected to continue through this year. In the industrial sector, EIA's natural-gas-weighted industrial production index (a measure of industrial activity in natural-gas-intensive industries) showed a year-over-year increase of 6.8 percent during the first quarter of 2010 and is forecast to rise by 5 percent on average for the entire year. [Emphasis is ours.]
For more, see here.