DJ Natural Gas Slides as Forecasts for Hot Weather Fade
By Christian Berthelsen
Natural-gas futures slipped Tuesday as late-summer forecasts for hot weather turned more moderate, tamping down
expectations for gas-fired cooling demand.
Natural gas for delivery in October was down 9.4 cents, or 2.3%, to $3.9710 a million British thermal units on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. If prices stay at that level throughout the session, it would be the first settlement
below $4/mmBtu in a week.
Futures were on a tear in the last month, rising 5.8% as additions to inventories came in lower than expected and
forecasts finally turned hotter after a temperate summer, which kept air-conditioning usage low. Utilities use natural
gas to run electricity plants and demand rises with the thermometer in the summer as homes and businesses power up to
cool down.
But the latest forecasts show the late-season heat wave may be shorter-lived than previously expected.
Forecasters said temperatures will be normalizing in the next two weeks, with summer heat only remaining in the
South, the Southeast and the West Coast.
"As quickly as the late hot summer weather rolled into major portions of the U.S., it is now quickly rolling out,"
Energy Management Institute analyst Dominick Chirichella said in a note.
With hurricane season on the way, traders have been watching tropical storms off the coast to see if they would
develop into a threat for the U.S., which could drive price gyrations as storms have the potential to disrupt
production. But the first of the storms forming in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to make landfall in Mexico and not
impact the U.S.
"There were several tropical waves over the Atlantic and Caribbean that were weak but worth watching,"
Natgasweather.com said in a note. The Gulf storm, it said, will likely develop into "nothing more than a disorganized
cluster of showers and thunderstorms."
In the physical market, cash prices for next-day delivery at the benchmark Henry Hub last traded at $4/mmBtu,
compared with Friday's range of $3.99 to $4.08. Cash prices for next-day delivery at the Transco Z6 hub in New York
traded in a bid-ask range of $2.70-3.15/mmBtu, compared with Friday's range of $2.44-$2.55.
Write to Christian Berthelsen at christian.berthelsen@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 02, 2014 09:41 ET (13:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
090214 13:41 -- GMT
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