Crude oil prices recently hit a bottom in this bear market at $33.87 and prices are up 15% since the beginning of the year. That’s a bullish sign for commodity bulls who received a much needed price jolt last week following the dollar’s big decline. OPEC has also been busy cutting supplies, mainly Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, Russia, a non-OPEC member.

But will depressed natural gas prices follow suit?

Government data showing a bigger than expected withdrawal of natural gas from storage facilities combined with a sharp dollar reversal drove prices higher last week to settle at $4.22 BTUs ahead of this morning’s opening trade.

Natural gas prices have collapsed a cumulative 70% since last summer as demand has declined amid a global industrial slump and previously robust production. But now storage supplies are declining and the number of gas rigs in production has plummeted.

According to Baker Hughes, a major oil-services company based in the United States, gas rigs sank to 857 for the week ending March 20 – down 47% from their peak of 1,606 last September. As gas prices have swooned over the last eight months companies have scaled back expansion plans, cut production and closed more than 750 rigs.

Historically, natural gas and crude oil tend to shadow each other. If oil prices are running hard this month – closing above $51 recently then perhaps natural gas might be at the cusp of an equally impressive rebound. A sharp decline in operational rigs does suggest an imminent rally is likely, especially with prices so depressed.

Though it’s hard to make a bullish case for domestic gas consumption this summer as consumers and companies cut demand, the odds of a major price spike occurring has risen markedly now that net supplies are declining following big production cutbacks.

Also, massive global fiscal spending eventually feeding through the real economy at some point in 2010 – if only helping to boost growth temporarily – might be enough to act as a catalyst for renewed demand. A lower dollar would also help since commodities tend to rise when the dollar declines. With most global currencies now on course for a series of competitive devaluations, it might be the dollars’ turn to head lower.

Investors can play a natural gas recovery two ways. Exchange-traded funds or ETFs that invest in natural gas futures might be the best avenue available to ride this theme, particularly if equities turn lower again in a broad-based sell-off. The underlying futures contract representing natural gas might fare even better providing negative correlation to the general trend in publicly-traded gas companies.

For example, in 2009 crude oil has risen 15% but the Spiders Select Energy ETF (XLE) has declined 10%. In adverse markets, some commodities tend to outpace their respective publicly-traded companies. This is exactly what happened in 2002 as oil prices soared more than 40% while XLE fell 12%.

Another strategy is to buy the depressed U.S. and Canadian gas companies. Many of these stocks still trade miles below their summer 2008 all-time highs and pay fat dividends, which at this point are unlikely to be cut. Canadian gas producers are especially attractive because they’ve cut rig output even more deeply. The Canadian dollar, down almost a third from its all-time high against the American dollar, should also rally nicely since Alberta and the rest of the country benefits from rising energy demand.