DJ Natural Gas Prices Slip on Inventory Data
By Nicole Friedman
NEW YORK--Natural gas prices settled below $2 on Thursday for the first time since December after weekly inventory
data showed a smaller-than-average withdrawal from storage.
Futures for March delivery settled down 6.6 cents, or 3.2%, to $1.972 a million British thermal units on the New York
Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since Dec. 22.
The natural-gas market is oversupplied because of robust production and moderate weather that has limited demand for
natural gas as an indoor-heating fuel.
Natural-gas stockpiles fell last week by 152 billion cubic feet, the Energy Information Administration said Thursday.
Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected the agency to report a 159 bcf decline. The five-year average
withdrawal for this time of year is 165 bcf.
Inventories as of Jan. 29 totaled 2.934 trillion cubic feet, 20% above levels from a year ago and 18% above the
five-year average for the same week.
"We still have a large amount of gas in the ground," said Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy. "Unless we get
a pickup in demand...I think the market in the immediate term is going to have a hard time picking its head up."
Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 04, 2016 15:44 ET (20:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
020416 20:44 -- GMT
No comments:
Post a Comment