Dow Jones - Natural Gas Falls Further Amid Early Onset Of Spring

DJ Natural Gas Falls Further Amid Early Onset of Spring



  By Christian Berthelsen


  Natural gas futures slipped Tuesday as the market came to terms with the apparent early end to a tepid winter heating
season, with surging pre-spring temperatures dashing hopes for any remaining gas-fired heating demand.

  Natural gas futures for April delivery were down 0.4% at $1.6840 a million British thermal units on the New York
Mercantile Exchange. The market has slumped more than 30% since early January as an unusually warm winter as weighed on
gas demand and robust U.S. shale production has bolstered supplies.

  Those warm temperatures now look set to take hold and run higher in the coming weeks, with an early end to the winter
season. Forecasters are projecting much higher-than-normal temperatures over much of the U.S. in the next few days and
warm weather persisting into late March, particularly in the high-heating demand area of the northeastern U.S.

  "Forecasts remain bearish as the warming trend is projected to cover the majority of the U.S. in both the short- and
longer-term forecast periods," Dominick Chirichella of the Energy Management Institute said in a note. "The current
winter heating season is definitely going to go into the history books as a very warm winter."

  Domestic natural gas stockpiles now total 2.5 trillion cubic feet, 46% higher than year-ago levels and 36% above
average for this time of year.


  Write to Christian Berthelsen at christian.berthelsen@wsj.com


  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  March 08, 2016 10:19 ET (15:19 GMT)

  Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

030816 15:19 -- GMT
------