Despite being sidelined for the most of the first half of the year, weather conditions, supply and demand imbalances, and Congress could lead to an opportunity in natural gas.

According to the National Weather Service, the next few months are expected to be warmer than usual, with average temperatures being above normal by 2 to 3 degrees across the nation. What this means is that consumers will likely run their electric powered air conditioners more often and for longer periods of time. This further translates to increased demand for electricity, which has a domino effect and increases demand for natural gas.

Although the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has been reduced to a trickle based on successful attempts to finally cap the well, the permanent solution to the crisis will only arrive upon completion of the relief wells that BP is currently drilling. The company expects the relief well to permanently end the flow of oil by mid-August. Given the fact that relief wells represent the most certain way to kill a troubled well, should oil exploration firms be required to preemptively drill relief wells along with exploration wells?

Making preemptive relief wells a required part of deep sea oil exploration was the subject of an opinion article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Michio Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at City College of New York, makes the following recommendation:

There are times when the talking heads in the financial media are myopic. Naturally, everyone wants to know if tech bellwethers like IBM (IBM), Yahoo (YHOO), TI (TXI) and Apple (AAPL) will beat top-line revenue estimates. Undoubtedly, Goldman Sachs and BP are headline-grabbers due to the recent SEC settlement and the never-ending “spill.”

Yet, I’m startled by the fact that you couldn’t find a decent feature on Halliburton’s earnings triumph. This is one of the world’s leading service providers to the energy industry… from development to drilling to production. How did the ultra-profitable quarter go largely unnoticed?