In today's capital markets, being long natural gas isn't viewed favorably by investors, and few equity or debt sponsors are pursuing natural gas opportunities. Therefore, the question of how to finance a natural gas-levered E&P company looms large.

The knee-jerk response has been to say go long oil, given that the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price was recently higher than 40 times the Henry Hub natural gas price.

During the latter half of the past decade, high gas prices, the proliferation of horizontal drilling technology and shale and ...