Dow Jones - Post-Report Commentary

DJ Natural-Gas Prices Fall on Larger-than-Expected Surplus


   By Timothy Puko


  NEW YORK--Natural-gas futures retreated from $4 Thursday after a weekly stockpile update showed a larger surplus than
expected.

  Producers added 90 billion cubic feet of gas to storage for the week ended Sept. 12, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration said. The addition was 1 bcf larger than the 89 bcf consensus average expectations of analysts and
brokers in The Wall Street Journal survey.

  Natural gas for October delivery dipped as low as $3.897 a million British thermal units, losing 1.9% in the minute
after the data release. It gained some of that back and the front-month contract recently traded down 8.5 cents, or
2.1%, for the day at $3.93 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

  Traders use the EIA update to gauge how quickly stockpiles are recovering from high demand that drained them to
11-year lows this winter. Last week's addition refilled stockpiles to 2.9 trillion cubic feet, about 13% below the
five-year average level for that week of the year. It had been at less than half of the average at the start of spring.


  Write to Timothy Puko at Timothy.Puko@wsj.com


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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  September 18, 2014 10:55 ET (14:55 GMT)

  Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

091814 14:55 -- GMT
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