Dow Jones - Natural Gas Slides As Weak Demand Limits Gains

DJ Natural Gas Slides as Weak Hopes for Demand Limit Gains



  By Timothy Puko


  Natural gas fell on weak hopes for demand.

  Prices for the front-month November contract settled down 3.7 cents, or 1.5%, at $2.498 a million British thermal
units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The losses snapped a string of six winning sessions out of seven, but those
gains were small and Tuesday's trade brought gas back within 7 cents of the three-year low it hit Oct. 1.

  Some colder temperatures in weather forecasts fed hope on Monday that there could be a burst of heating demand coming
soon. But forecasts are still showing largely normal to above-normal temperatures for the next two weeks. At this time
of year that weather usually makes it too warm for heating demand but too cool to drive demand for natural gas-fired
power to fuel air conditioners.

  Production is also rising back toward a record, according to data provider Bentek Energy. Some of the new pipelines
connecting the Marcellus Shale and other Northeastern gas-production areas opened almost two months early, allowing
production there to hit a record in September, Bentek said. That pushed gas production across the lower 48 states to
its highest point since April, 72 billion cubic feet a day, ending several months of declining or near-flat production.

  Prices are "really doing nothing," said Dean Hazelcorn, trader at the brokerage Coquest Inc. in Dallas. "This is the
same old same old. These rallies need to be sold in the near term."


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


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  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  October 13, 2015 15:02 ET (19:02 GMT)

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

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