DJ Natural Gas Slides on Inventory Data
By Nicole Friedman
NEW YORK--Natural-gas prices dropped Thursday after weekly inventory data showed that supplies fell less than
expected last week.
Natural gas for April delivery settled down 10.7 cents, or 3.7%, to $2.813 a million British thermal units on the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
Natural-gas stockpiles fell by 45 billion cubic feet in the week ended March 13, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration said Thursday.
Analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had called for a drop of 47 bcf.
Inventories are now 53% above last year's unusually low level and 13% below the five-year average for this week.
"Even though it wasn't a big withdrawal, the market was expecting a little bit more than that," said Santiago Diaz, a
broker at INTL FCStone. Looking forward, he said, "it's more of a question of, what is the weather telling is? Is
winter going to linger?"
Prices settled at their highest level since Feb. 20 on Wednesday as forecasts called for unseasonably cold weather in
the coming weeks, which could boost demand for natural gas to power indoor heating. About half of U.S. households use
natural gas as their primary heating fuel.
But forecasts released Thursday were a bit more moderate.
"There's definitely a huge divergence between people that expect it to turn cold again...and those who think that
it's going to be warm," said Kyle Cooper, analyst at IAF Advisors in Houston. But even if temperatures are colder than
average, he noted, the average temperatures in late March and April aren't frigid.
"In the absence of strong winter-related support, natural-gas prices are exhibiting normal seasonal weakness," said
BNP Paribas SA in a note.
The small storage withdrawal reported this week suggests that next week's report could even show a slight build to
supplies, as weather-driven consumption fades, Mr. Cooper said.
Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2015 15:21 ET (19:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
031915 19:21 -- GMT
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