Natural Gas Holds Steady On Warmer Forecasts

DJ Natural Gas Holds Steady on Warmer Forecasts


   By Timothy Puko


  Natural gas prices are holding close to unchanged Wednesday as weather forecasts continue to warm, pushing stronger
expectations for demand and helping to prop up the market.

  Prices for the front-month September contract was down 0.2 cent, or 0.1%, at $2.683 a million British thermal units
on the New York Mercantile Exchange. September options expired at close and futures expire Thursday. The October
contract declined 0.5 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.690/mmBtu.

  Prices are hovering near the bottom of a 33-cent range they have traded in for two months.

  Consumption of gas-powered electricity often rises in the summer as people turn on their air-conditioning units. New
forecasts from Commodity Weather Group LLC now agree with Tuesday's updates from rival private forecaster MDA Weather
Services in Maryland showing temperatures around 8-degrees-Fahernheit above normal at the start of next week throughout
Midwest and Northeast.

  The demand for gas-fired power should help absorb enough supply that it keeps storage from filling up this autumn,
said Teri Viswanath, a natural-gas strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York. Many analysts and traders earlier in the
summer warned of a strong fall in prices if tepid demand allowed near-record supply to take up all the storage space
available for extra gas ahead of the peak-demand winter-heating season.

  This "should prevent an exaggerated selloff," Ms. Viswanath said in a note.

  Physical gas for next-day delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at $2.72/mmBtu, compared with Tuesday's
range of $2.6775-$2.72. Cash prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New York last traded at $2.65/mmBtu, compared with
Tuesday's range of $2.5475-$2.55.


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


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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  August 26, 2015 10:39 ET (14:39 GMT)

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

082615 14:39 -- GMT
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