Dow Jones - Natural Gas Rises Ahead of Cold Weather

DJ Natural Gas Rises Ahead of Cold Weather



  By Nicole Friedman


  NEW YORK--Natural gas prices rose Wednesday on expectations that the surplus of the heating fuel isn't getting
bigger.

  Natural gas futures for November delivery settled up 2 cents, or 0.8%, at $2.518 a million British thermal units on
the New York Mercantile Exchange.

  Robust production and moderate demand pushed the natural-gas market into oversupply this summer, weighing on prices.

  But weather forecasts on Wednesday showed "a strengthening of the eastern chill this weekend and...into the beginning
of next week as well," said Commodity Weather Group LLC in a note. Cold weather boosts demand for natural gas, as about
half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel.

  In addition, traders and analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect the U.S. Energy Information
Administration to report Thursday that natural-gas inventories grew by 94 billion cubic feet last week. If the storage
estimate is correct, inventories as of Oct. 9 will be 4.5% above the five-year average for the same week, the same
level of surplus as the prior week.

  The EIA said in a forecast released Tuesday that natural-gas production in seven key shale regions fell in October
from September and will decline further in November. Producers have cut back sharply on spending in the past year,
leading to a decline in new drilling, due to low natural-gas prices and a plunge in oil prices.


  Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com


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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  October 14, 2015 15:54 ET (19:54 GMT)

  Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

101415 19:54 -- GMT
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