Dow Jones - Natural Gas Slips Ahead of Inventory Data

DJ Natural Gas Slips Ahead of Inventory Data



  By Christian Berthelsen


  Natural gas prices edged lower Thursday ahead of weekly U.S. supply stockpile data, as traders anticipated slowing
demand with the approaching end of summer cooling season.

  Natural gas prices for October delivery fell 0.5% to $2.6770 a million British thermal units on the New York
Mercantile Exchange, pulling back from a gain Wednesday. Prices are trading near the bottom of the range they have been
in for the last two months.

  Though current weather outlooks predict warm weather through the end of summer, traders are looking past that to the
approach of the so-called fall "shoulder months," when weather is too mild to drive much demand either way for heating
or cooling. Natural gas is a key component in home heating and power generation, and demand goes up when people need to
heat or cool their homes and offices.

  "When fall weather hits, we do see a drop-off in seasonal demand," said Gene McGillian, senior analyst at brokerage
Tradition Energy in Stamford, Conn.

  The U.S. Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release weekly storage data at 10:30 a.m. EDT. In a
consensus estimate, analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal projected an increase of 61 billion cubic feet of gas
for the week ended Aug 21.

  In physical markets, cash prices for next-day delivery of gas at the benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at
$2.6850, below Wednesday's range of $2.695-$2.75. Prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New York last traded at $2.20,
compared with Wednesday's range of $2.65-$2.75.


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


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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  August 27, 2015 10:21 ET (14:21 GMT)

  Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

082715 14:21 -- GMT
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