Dow Jones - Natural Gas Turns Positive On Inventory Data

DJ Natural Gas Turns Positive on Inventory Data

By Nicole Friedman

     NEW YORK--Natural gas prices rose Thursday after weekly inventory data showed a smaller-than-expected increase in
natural-gas stockpiles.

     Futures for September delivery settled up 1.5 cents, or 0.5%, to $2.813 a million British thermal units on the New
York Mercantile Exchange.

     Natural-gas inventories rose by 32 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 31, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration said Thursday. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a storage injection of 43
billion cubic feet.

     The lower-than-expected build indicates that consumption was higher than expected, said Ben Smith, president of
market-data service First Enercast Financial. Prices turned positive on the report.

     "Demand seems to be very strong, Mr. Smith said. "That's going to feed into lowering everyone's estimates [of
storage injections] for the next two weeks, at least."

     But weather forecasts released Wednesday and Thursday called for cooler temperatures, which could lower
natural-gas consumption.

     The market remains oversupplied compared with historical norms. Inventories as of July 31 totaled 2.912 trillion
cubic feet, 23% above the year-ago level and 2.2% above the five-year average for the same week.

     "It remains to be seen as to whether or not the report will be enough to offset the moderating weather forecast
that is likely to result in higher injections in the coming weeks," said Dominick Chirichella, analyst at the Energy
Management Institute, in a note.

     Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com


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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  August 06, 2015 15:33 ET (19:33 GMT)

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080615 19:33 -- GMT
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