Supplies also increased as a result of tax credits that Congress approved last year for gas drillers.

He favors a few commodity-based stocks, offshore oil and natural gas drillers among them.

Profit taking affected oil and gas drillers.

A Home Box Office miniseries is planned that will dramatize a New York magazine article on natural gas drillers coming to the region.

He supported one bill, for example, that would have given private landowners a bit more leverage in dealing with gas drillers.

But the best-performing industry group is gold stocks, up 37 percent, with industries like forest products and oil and gas drillers not far behind.

The law subjects natural gas drillers to an impact fee to offset any environmental or community impacts of drilling.

Utilities in most regions have purchased gas through the years from pipeline companies that gathered big volumes of gas from dozens of gas drillers.

Union Pacific Resources is an independent oil and gas driller, which means it specializes in getting as much out of a given field's reserves as possible.

"But the hurricanes did significant damage to gas drillers in the gulf and will continue to push prices up."