By Timothy Puko
NEW YORK--Natural-gas prices set a new bottom for 2014 for the second time this week as traders expect news on a big
addition to winter stockpiles.
The front-month November contract settled down 5.2 cents, or 1.4%, to $3.659 a million British thermal units on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. That is the lowest closing price for the front-month contract since Nov. 19 when it
closed at $3.556/mmBtu. Natural gas has lost ground in six of the last seven sessions, dropping 6.6% over that span.
Record production and tepid demand have been pressuring the market since June. The U.S. Energy Information
Administration is likely to report Thursday that producers added around 97 billion cubic feet of gas to stockpiles last
week, according to the average forecast of 16 analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. That surplus is
nearly 40% larger than the five-year average for that week of the year and would be the fourth-largest addition for a
week in October dating to at least 1994, EIA data shows.
"That's really rare," said Teri Viswanath, a natural-gas strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York. "It's not just the
story of supply, it's the story of demand not showing up--and now the possibility, what if it doesn't show up, ever?"
Weather forecasts are still showing above-normal temperatures through the end of the month, likely warm enough that
consumers won't use much natural gas for home heating. Long-term forecasts are largely predicting that cold winter
weather won't arrive before January and if that proves true, prices are likely to stay below $4 for weeks, said Gene
McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy.
The EIA releases its weekly update on storage levels at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.
FUTURES SETTLEMENT NET CHANGE
Nymex November $3.659 -5.2c
Nymex December $3.745 -5.5c
Nymex January $3.828 -5.3c
CASH HUB RANGE PREVIOUS DAY
El Paso Perm $3.48-$3.56 $3.46-$3.55
El Paso SJ $3.49-$3.55 $3.4625-$3.52
Henry Hub $3.66-$3.70 $3.60-$3.64
Katy $3.595-$3.63 $3.58-$3.64
SoCal $3.62-$3.65 $3.59-$3.65
Tex East M3 $2.425 -$2.69 $2.25-$2.59
Transco 65 $3.63-$3.67 $3.55-$3.64
Transco Z6 $2.59-$2.75 $2.38-$2.70
Waha $3.555-$3.58 $3.53-$3.56
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
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(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
October 22, 2014 15:33 ET (19:33 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
102214 19:33 -- GMT
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