DJ Natural Gas Slips as Healthy Supply Pushes Losses
By Timothy Puko
NEW YORK--Natural-gas prices are inching lower for a second straight session as healthy supply continues to
discourage buyers.
Natural gas for October delivery is down 6.6 cents, or 1.7%, at $3.888 a million British thermal units on the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
Record supply is still coming on strong, with traders expecting an 82-billion-cubic feet addition to gas to
stockpiles last week, according to the average forecast of 17 analysts, brokers and traders surveyed Wednesday by The
Wall Street Journal. The U.S. Energy Information Administration will give its official update at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
That addition would be one third more than the usual addition for that time of year. It would also bring stockpiles
to 14% below their five-year average level, compared with a deficit that had been more than 50% at the end of winter,
according to EIA data.
Producers are refilling stockpiles so fast that it has created a price ceiling at around $4/mmBtu, analysts have
said. Technical traders spurred gas to its biggest gains since June earlier this week, and then the current retreat
started Wednesday, a day after traders failed to surge past the $4 mark. It is the third time since July that prices
have hit a ceiling at about $4/mmBtu after bouncing from dips below $3.80.
"The market has been moving in spurts and has not established any trend except to trade sideways," Frank Clements,
co-owner of Meridian Energy Brokers Inc. outside New York, wrote Thursday in a note to clients. "Right now there is
nothing on the short-term horizon to indicate that the pattern (will) change."
Physical gas for next-day delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at $3.905/mmBtu, compared with
Wednesday's range of $3.94-$3.98. Cash prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New York last traded at $2.46/mmBtu, compared
with Wednesday's range of $2.99 to $3.09.
Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwireshttp://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires">http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
>
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 11, 2014 09:55 ET (13:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
091114 13:55 -- GMT
------
No comments:
Post a Comment